Real Climate Economics -- a new website

A website that’s worth a look: The Real Climate Economics website offers a reader’s guide to the real economics of climate change, an emerging body of scholarship that is consistent with the urgency of the problem as seen from a climate science perspective.

As the climate policy debate intensifies, economic analysis is playing an increasingly central role. The case for inaction is no longer argued on the grounds of skepticism about the science; instead, some have claimed that it will be too expensive to take more than token initiatives. There is now extensive economic analysis that challenges and refutes this idea. The peer-reviewed literature demonstrates that there is rigorous economic support for immediate, large-scale policy responses to the climate crisis.

The articles included here generally reflect and build on the following principles:

• Risk and uncertainty are fundamental to the climate problem; the magnitude and the irreversibility of uncertain, but possible, worst-case climate impacts dominate the analysis of policy options.
• Ethics and equity are inseparable from economic analysis; there are deep questions of fairness between rich and poor today, and between present and future generations, at stake in the debate.
• The severity of the problem and the scope of the required response are so great that marginal analysis of small changes and modest adjustments of market-based instruments are inadequate to the task of understanding and protecting the earth’s climate….

Sand dunes encroaching on Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, shot by Georg Gerster, NASA

Greenland ice could fuel severe U.S. sea level rise

Deborah Zabarenko in the Vancouver Sun, via Reuters: New York, Boston and other cities on North America's northeast coast could face a rise in sea level this century that would exceed forecasts for the rest of the planet if Greenland's ice sheet keeps melting as fast as it is now, researchers said on Wednesday. Sea levels off the northeast coast of North America could rise by 12 to 20 inches more than other coastal areas if the Greenland glacier-melt continues to accelerate at its present pace, the researchers reported.

This is because the current rate of ice-melting in Greenland could send so much fresh water into the salty north Atlantic Ocean that it could change the vast ocean circulation pattern sometimes called the conveyor belt. Scientists call this pattern the meridional overturning circulation. "If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise," said Aixie Hu, lead author of an article on the subject in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

…This is an even bleaker assessment than an earlier study indicated. A March article in the journal Nature Geoscience said warmer water temperatures could shift ocean currents so as to raise sea levels off the U.S. northeast coast by about 8 inches more than the average global sea level rise. However, this earlier research did not include the impact of melting Greenland ice, which would speed changes in ocean circulation and send 4 to 12 more inches of water toward northeastern North America, on top of the average global sea level rise…

Snow in New York, Robert Henri, 1902. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Unmanned aircraft to aid study of ice seals in Alaska

Science Daily: NOAA's Fisheries Service scientists and their partners have launched an unmanned aircraft to mount the vehicle’s first search for ice seals at the southern edge of the Bering Sea pack ice during the Arctic spring, in an effort to learn more about these remotely located species.

On May 13, the NOAA research vessel McArthur II departed Kodiak, Alaska, and headed for the Bering Sea to launch the ScanEagle, an unmanned aircraft that is being used to collect images and video along the ice edge.

NOAA's Fisheries Service scientists from the Alaska Science Center’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory, in cooperation with the University of Alaska’s Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, will use the images, taken during the month-long expedition, to evaluate whether unmanned aircraft could be useful for estimating the abundance and distribution of ice seals. In 2008, NOAA determined that ribbon seals should not be listed under the Endangered Species Act. NOAA was also petitioned to list spotted, bearded and ringed seals, and is gathering information and preparing status reviews for those species.

“The distributions of ice seals are broad and include areas very far from shore,” said Michael Cameron, NOAA's Fisheries Service’s lead scientist on the expedition. “Using traditional, manned aircraft to survey all of the sea ice habitat in Alaskan waters would be challenging, expensive and potentially dangerous. We hope that the ScanEagle will provide a safe and efficient way to collect information in this remote environment.”…

A bearded seal, not deigning to look up at the monitoring plane

Preventive measures in Bangladesh

The New Nation (Bangladesh): …Climate hazards, including extremes like floods, cyclones, tornado, storm surge, tidal bore, etc are not new to Bangladesh and the country has a scarred history claiming many lives and resulting in losses of assets, belongings.

… Building adaptive capacity to climate change and managing climate risks will be addressed through the mainstreaming of climate risk into sustainable development strategies. To do this successfully requires awareness and understanding of climate change issues. These actions should build on existing coping methods. Communication between communities will allow copies strategies to be shared.

…Disaster risk reduction with climate change adaptation offers a win-win opportunity-climate system is fundamental for both issues: 75% of all disasters are originated by weather-climate extremes. Disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change strategies both are aimed at enhancing sustainability, resilient societies and human security. … The comprehensive Disaster Management Programmed (CDMP) of the government should implement and supervise properly.

…A National Climate Change Policy and Action Plan -To harness, guide and coordinate all the national and international responses and processes to integrate climate risk into development plans and processes, the government, through it's department of Environment has recently launched the preparation of the climate change policy and action plan for Bangladesh. It should ensure that these programs are done properly according to the demand of natural environment. Plan should address the needs and priorities of the country and will come into practice with mainstreaming climate risk management and adaptation using the country framework as an operational tool....

Climate change raises stakes for Upper Midwest in the US

Grand Forks Herald: Gabriel Carter joined the sandbag brigade in the Fargodome this spring and helped build an earthen dike to protect a relative’s home in the flood-prone Oakport neighborhood north of Moorhead. While he was stooping, shoveling and maneuvering a loader during the Red River flood fight, the North Dakota State University student made a connection not all are apt to reach. “This is what climate change looks like,” he says. “It’s definitely a consideration that I make.”

…Will Gosnold, a geophysicist at the University of North Dakota who has studied climate change for more than 20 years, says flood protection plans should take the implications of more frequent and extreme floods into account. He co-authored a study published in 2000, in the aftermath of the devastating 1997 Grand Forks, N.D., flood, that stated flood protection plans must more accurately reflect climate cycles and land-use changes, including field drainage.

Flood mitigation takes its cues from flood predictions, which average river levels over recorded history. That tends to understate the tendency for catastrophic floods during wet periods, Gosnold and his UND colleagues argue. Thus with the wetter cycles that are expected to recur from global warming, the Red River Valley is likely to face more floods of the magnitude of 2009 and 1997, which echo epic ancient, or “paleo,” floods.

“We face a dilemma in that our flood mitigation program is based on floods that do not cause much damage and ignores the floods (paleo floods and other extreme floods) that cause the vast majority of damage,” wrote Gosnold and his co-authors….

The Sorlie Bridge between Grand Forks, North Dakota, and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, during the 1997 Red River flood, USGS

Turkey's environment needs care

Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey): … Another year, another June 5: World Environment Day was marked once again, for the 37th time since being designated by the United Nations, but Turkey still has many environmental issues to contend with.

The Turkey branch of the World Wildlife Foundation, the Turkish Environmental and Woodlands Protection Society, or TÜRÇEK, and the Nature Society came together to lay out Turkey’s environmental problems in 2009. The picture they have painted is not a pretty one. The environmentalists’ joint opinion is that Turkey’s primary problem is wrongheaded policies on water and other resources.

…"Many types of habitats in Turkey have been irreversibly destroyed, especially in the last 30 to 40 years," [Filiz] Demirayak [of WWF in Turkey said]….. "In the western Black Sea region of northern Anatolia, 79 percent of coastal sand dunes have been destroyed, along with 85 percent of the brushwood; approximately 1.3 million hectares of wetlands are gone. The rate of water available per person has dropped from 4,000 cubic meters to 1,430 cubic meters. Turkey is rapidly turning into a water-poor country."

….The groups defined the most urgent problems on Turkey’s environmental agenda as follows:

• The biggest salt lake in Europe has diminished by almost half in 18 years.
• One of the terminals of the power plant at Afşin Elbistan has been operating without a filter for years, polluting surrounding areas.
• The almost 400 hydroelectric plants planned for many provinces, Artvin and Rize foremost among them, means death for the streams they are going to be built on.
• The Great Menderes Basin, the primary water source of İzmir, has been poisoned…

I couldn't resist this infrared shot of Kızılcahamam in Turkey, by Nevit Dilmen, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Nurturing forests, peatlands will help resist global warming: UNEP

Terra Daily, via Agence France-Presse: Fixing deforestation, preserving peatlands and ending reckless agricultural methods could be a major weapon in tackling climate change, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Friday. Biological systems, if responsibly managed, can absorb billions of tonnes of the dangerous carbon gases that fuel the greenhouse effect, the agency said in a report coinciding with World Environment Day.

…Around 20 percent of annual greenhouse-gas emissions are imputable to logging, farming and burning of peatlands, according to scientists. UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said major countries had earmarked tens of billions of dollars in investments in carbon capture and storage technology, by which CO2 is siphoned off at power stations and then pumped underground or under the sea.

"But perhaps the international community is overlooking a tried-and-tested method that has been working for millennia -- the biosphere," he said. "By some estimates, the Earth's living systems might be capable of sequestering more than 50 gigatonnes [50 billion tonnes] of carbon over the coming decades with the right market signals."

The report touched on areas that are up for debate in talks to craft a new global pact on climate change. The accord, scheduled to be sealed in Copenhagen in December, will be take effect from the end of 2012….

Deep in the woods on a long walk, shot by Ivan from Serbia, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Added distance for migrations is a threat to birds

Science Daily: Bird migrations are likely to get longer according to the first ever study of the potential impacts of climate change on the breeding and winter ranges of migrant birds. The length of some migrations could increase by as much as 400 km. “The predicted future temperature changes and the associated changes in habitat could have serious consequences for many species”, said lead-author Nathalie Doswald of Durham University (UK).

A team of researchers - led by Durham University and with funding from the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) and Natural Environment Research Council – looked at the migration patterns of European Sylvia warblers, a group of birds that are common residents and visitors to Europe, like Common Whitethroat Sylvia communis and Blackcap Sylvia atricapilla.

“Our findings show that marathon migrations for some birds are set to become even longer journeys”, said Dr Stephen Willis – team leader from Durham University. “This is bad news for birds like the Common Whitethroat”.

Some 500 million birds are estimated to migrate to Europe and Asia from Africa. Birds weighing as little as nine grams undertake the annual migration of thousands of miles between the two continents to find food and suitable climate.

Common whitethroat, shot by Bogbumper, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.

New proxy reveals how human have disrupted the nitrogen cycle

Brown University News: …Scientists have determined that humans are disrupting the nitrogen cycle by altering the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the biosphere. The chief culprit is fossil fuel combustion, which releases nitric oxides into the air that combine with other elements to form smog and acid rain. But it has been difficult to know precisely the extent to which such emissions have altered the nitrogen balance.

Researchers from Brown University and the University of Washington have found a new way to make the link. The scientists show that comparing nitrogen isotopes in their deposited form — nitrates — can reveal the sources of atmospheric nitric oxide. In a paper published this week in Science, the group traces the source of nitrates to nitric oxides released through fossil fuel burning that parallels the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The group also reveals that the greatest change in nitrogen isotope ratios occurred between 1950 and 1980, following a rapid increase in fossil fuel emissions.

…To make the link, Hastings, with Julia Jarvis and Eric Steig from the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington, examined at high resolution for the first time two isotopes of nitrogen found in nitrates in a Greenland ice core. The core, 100 meters long and taken at the peak of the Greenland ice cap in June 2006, contains a record of nitrates from about 1718 to 2006, according to the group.

Tests showed the ratio of the nitrogen-15 isotope to the more common nitrogen-14 isotope had changed from pre-industrial times to the present. “The only way I can explain the trend over time,” Hastings said, “are the nitric oxide sources, because we’ve introduced this whole new source — and that’s fossil fuels burning.”…

Scientists extracted a 100-meter-long ice core in Greenland to measure how fossil fuel burning of industrial times has disrupted the global nitrogen cycle. At left is Meredith Hastings of Brown University, the lead author of the study, accompanied by Bella Bergeron from Ice Coring and Drilling Services. Credit: Meredith Hastings/Julia Jarvis, from the Brown University web site.

Upper Mississippi floodplain becomes wetland of international importance

Environment News Service: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has designated portions of the Upper Mississippi River, including the largest national wildlife refuge in the Midwest, as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The designation includes about 470 square miles of federal and state lands and waters of the Upper Mississippi River floodplain from near Wabasha, Minnesota to north of Rock Island, Illinois.

It includes all of the 375 square mile Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge headquartered in Winona, Minnesota and the adjacent 10 square mile Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. In making the announcement, Secretary Salazar said, "The ecological, social, and economic values of the Upper Mississippi River make it one of the crown jewels of this nation's wetlands.

"This marks the 27th U.S. wetland designated under the Convention on Wetlands," said the secretary. "It’s certainly fitting that this area has now officially received international recognition." The designation proposal was endorsed by the Departments of Natural Resources of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and seven members of Congress from the respective states….

The source of the Mississippi River, in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, shot by Christine Kar, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Civil engineering's role in reducing the risk of climate change

The American Surveyor: As leaders of the civil engineering profession gathered in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to discuss the challenges and risks faced by coastal communities worldwide at the 2009 Triennial Conference, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) and the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) jointly signed an agreement on Civil Engineering and Climate Change. Based on the belief that “substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are required to reduce the risk of climate change” and that “the effects of climate change include reduced access to drinking water supplies, increased exposure to flooding and the threat to flood security in large parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America,” the agreement outlines civil engineers’ role in the solution, as well as key engineering and public policy priorities.

“Climate change is posing serious risks to the infrastructure systems that support our global economy, and more importantly, the ability of communities worldwide to prosper and thrive,” said ASCE President D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE. “As civil engineers, it is our duty to assure the performance of those critical systems, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and complying with the principles of sustainable development must play a major role in our efforts to mitigate the risks we face.”

“Developing technologies to mitigate the impacts of climate change is a challenge for all engineers,” said CSCE President Gordon Jin, P.Eng., FCSCE. “This agreement sends a clear signal to our respective policy makers that civil engineers are at the forefront of this crucial issue, and highlights the need for public policy priorities to address this for the good of our planet and its inhabitants.”

….Civil engineers are central to the success of the infrastructure networks that support our society and global economy. To address the foreseeable climate change impacts on and need for resilience in those networks, design, construction and operation must be changed. To address this crucial issue, the engineering priorities outlined in the agreement focus on two areas, mitigation and adaptation….

Archimedes and his lever, an engraving from Mechanics Magazine published in London in 1824

US urged to abandon ageing flood defences in favour of Dutch system

Suzanne Goldenberg in the Guardian (UK): America, now entering its hurricane season, was today urged to abandon the outmoded "patch and pray" system of levees – whose failure magnified the devastation of Hurricane Katrina – and borrow from the Dutch model of dykes and water management. Mary Landrieu, a senator from New Orleans who was brought to tears during a helicopter tour of the destruction of 2005, said America needed to rethink its entire approach to low-lying coastal areas and adopt an integrated model of water management like that of the Netherlands.

The US has budgeted $14bn since Katrina to shore up the flood defences of Louisiana and other low-lying areas. "I believe I have found a great model that will work for protecting the people of Louisiana and the people of the Gulf coast," she told reporters. Louisiana's ageing flood controls rely on a series of levees along the Mississippi river built over the past 80 years by the Army Corps of Engineers.

In the Netherlands, water management is incorporated into urban planning, taking into account parks and other open public spaces that could function as safety reservoirs in case of floods, and also barrier islands and wetlands. "They have engineers and architects that build a flood control system that is integrated into the landscape," Landrieu said. "We have a one-size-fits-all military model that is out of date – building levees – when we should be managing water."

The Dutch also build to a far higher standard of preparedness than in the US, with structures designed to hold up in even the most extreme storms and flooding conditions. "The system we have now in South Louisiana and in some measures in much of the country is unsustainable," Landrieu said. "It is literally a patch-and-pray system and it doesn't even try to patch us to the same level that is customary in other parts of the world.

Landrieu was speaking on her second visit to the Netherlands to study water management since Katrina, and said she planned to ask Congress to approve funds to improve water management along the Gulf Coast….

Alexander Allison took this shot of New Orleans in the early 20th century: Street flooding from overflow of Old Basin Canal in neighborhood around Claiborne Avenue, Orleans, and St. Peter Streets. Undated; may be aftermath of the hurricane of either 1909 or 1915.

No climate change fix without reforming land use, farming

Climate Biz: The world cannot effectively address climate change without altering our relationship with soil, the world’s third largest carbon pool, according to a new report.

Changing the way we manage land and produce food can offset 25 percent of worldwide fossil fuel emissions, putting agriculture and land use near the center of the climate change fight, a report from Worldwatch Institute and Ecoagriculture Partners concluded.

“Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use” estimates the two sectors are responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions, yet the international science and policy communities have lagged in embracing efforts in these areas. That’s despite the fact that existing practices and innovations can sequester greenhouse gases now present in the atmosphere, while other remedies, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, may only reduce future emissions.

"While these initiatives are integral in the transition to a low-carbon economy, any strategy that seeks to mitigate global climate change without reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses is doomed to fail," Co-author Sara Scherr of Ecoagriculture Partners, said in a statement….

Study: Climate change altering Great Lakes water levels

Muskegon Chronicle (Michigan): A new study blames a post-1998 plunge in upper Great Lakes water levels on changing climate patterns -- not a manmade "drain hole" sucking lake water out the St. Clair River. So there's no need to plug the leak ... for now. But global warming might make a St. Clair fix necessary in the future. Those are the preliminary conclusions of a draft report published recently as part of a massive study of Great Lakes water levels.

West Michigan residents will have a chance to hear scientists present their findings, and to ask questions and offer comments, at a public meeting Tuesday in Muskegon. "We'd like to see a broad range of people come out ... property owners along the lake, boaters, people who are concerned about the environment, people whose livelihoods may depend on the lakes," said John Nevin, spokesman for the agency that sponsored the study.

…The report is the first fruit of a five-year study by the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian panel that mediates Great Lakes issues and recommends governmental actions. The $15 million International Upper Great Lakes Study is examining whether actions are needed to stabilize water levels in lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior.

…The just-released study examines one of the major lake-level issues: Whether earlier dredging in the St. Clair River led to the post-1998 plunge by creating an excessively large "drain hole," possibly requiring construction of a structure in the river to control water flow. Lakes Michigan and Huron drain into the St. Clair River, which flows into the Detroit River and Lake Erie.

…A much bigger factor was a change in climate patterns, with warm, dry weather prevailing in the Michigan-Huron basin starting in the 1990s, the scientists found. …

North shore of Lake Superior

El Nino could develop within weeks: U.S. forecaster

Reuters: The El Nino weather pattern, which can bring global weather chaos such as droughts and floods, could develop within weeks, the Climate Prediction Center in the United States said. El Nino is driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific and the forecaster said conditions were favorable for a switch to El Nino conditions during June to August 2009.

The forecast is the latest warning of the increased chances of El Nino developing after months of rising ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said on Wednesday that if recent trends in Pacific climate patterns held up, there was an above-50 percent chance an El Nino event would be established by July.

El Nino occurs when the eastern Pacific Ocean heats up, with warmer, moist air moving east, leaving drier weather in the western Pacific and Australia and putting crops at risk of failure. …The prediction center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said sea surface temperatures had risen for the fifth consecutive month in the equatorial Pacific….

This NASA image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea surface height measurements taken by the U.S./French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. The image shows sea surface height relative to normal ocean conditions on Dec. 1, 1997. In this image, the white and red areas indicate unusual patterns of heat storage; in the white areas, the sea surface is between 14 and 32 centimeters (6 to 13 inches) above normal; in the red areas, it's about 10 centimeters (4 inches) above normal. The green areas indicate normal conditions, while purple (the western Pacific) means at least 18 centimeters (7 inches) below normal sea level.

The adaptation deficit in Europe and Central Asia

eGov Monitor: The World Bank today warned that the impact of climate change in the Europe and Central Asia Region will be more significant than expected due to a lingering post-Soviet legacy of environmental mismanagement and the poor state of much of the Region’s infrastructure, leaving the countries poorly prepared to adapt. “Europe and Central Asia suffers from an ‘adaptation deficit’ that is already challenged by recent climate variability,” said Marianne Fay, Director of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2010, and author of the new report ‘Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia’, “which will only worsen with the consequences of projected trends in climate in the coming decades.”

Fay added that “While almost two decades have passed since the breakup of the Soviet Union and its partner countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the legacy of environmental mismanagement and oversized infrastructure in countries outside the European Union still remains a dangerous holdover from the past. It greatly worsens the countries’ vulnerability to even modest changes in the climate.”

Launched today during the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Talks and on the eve of ‘World Environment Day’ (June 5th), the report says that, contrary to popular perception, the Region is significantly threatened by climate change and is already experiencing the consequences: increasing variability, warmer temperatures, changing hydrology, and more extremes – droughts, floods, heat waves, as well as windstorms and forest fires.

Average temperatures across ECA have already increased by 0.5ºC in the south to 1.6ºC in the north (Siberia) since the early 1900s and overall increases of 1.6 to 2.6ºC above are expected by the middle of the century, with the greater changes occurring in the more northern latitudes. The north is projected to see greater temperature changes in winter, with the number of frost days declining by 14 to 30 days over the next 20 to 40 years. Southern parts of the region are expected to see the greatest changes in the summer, with the number of hot days increasing by 22 to 37 days over the same period. This warming trend is significant: by mid-century, countries such as Poland or Hungary are expected to experience the same number of hot days (>30oC) as today’s Spain or Sicily….

Around 1855, Roger Fenton shot this image: "Shadow of the Valley of Death" Dirt road in ravine scattered with cannonballs, Crimea. Cannon shot falling short of their target during the Siege of Sevastopol.

Actuaries have a crucial role to play in helping insurers deal with climate change

Insurance News: Climate change is a topic at the forefront of many minds, and actuaries have a crucial role to play by helping the insurance and reinsurance industry better understand related risks and how to price for them, attendees at the CAS Seminar on Reinsurance were told. Douglas Collins, consulting actuary, Towers Perrin, said: “There are important ways actuaries can contribute to the debate about climate change, from helping our employers and our industry understand the risks to quantifying the pricing and risk management implications.”

Collins noted that the Casualty Actuarial Society recently created a new committee to address climate change issues in partnership with the scientific community. “The committee has a broad charge, which includes educating our members and stakeholders, encouraging research that we can use, and assessing the potential risk management implications for the insurance industry,” he said. Collins observed that property/casualty insurers and reinsurers are likely to see effects of climate change across many aspects of their business.

“The first thing that comes to mind for our industry is property claims, particularly for wildfire, flood, and drought. These are likely to be increasing risks under a warming world. “For the reinsurance community probably the biggest concern would be wind, especially hurricanes and tropical storms if climate change causes increased frequency and/or severity,” he said.

On the casualty side of the business, Collins noted there is some litigation activity affecting D&O liability related to proper disclosure and assessment of climate risks, and also potential environmental liability claims against customers in the energy and automobile industries. “This is an area to watch,” he said. Climate change may also impact insurers’ and reinsurers’ expenses because of the costs involved in responding to requests by regulators and rating agencies, as well as the costs of becoming “green” (environmentally responsible) companies.

…“The bottom line is that the insurance and reinsurance community can handle worsening climate because by definition it is a long-term phenomenon. What will challenge us as an industry are aspects of climate change that may not be considered by our models, particularly if we see more frequent severe property events or significant liability claims,” Collins added.

Companies show little awareness of climate change risks

ClimateBiz: Two new studies from investor group Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Center for Energy and Environmental Security assess the major impacts climate change could have on global companies, and calls on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to set standards for climate-related risk reporting. The two new studies, one an in-depth look filings from 100 global companies in 2008, and another a longitudinal look S&P 500 companies' reports over the past 13 years, detail how slowly some of the world's largest companies are in recognizing and forming a plan to mitigate the impacts of climate change on business operations.

In "Reclaiming Transparency in a Changing Climate," the groups reviewed more than 6,000 SEC filings from S&P 500 companies between 1995 and 2008. The report finds that just 5 percent of annual reports from these firms laid out a strategy for managing climate change-related risks, while 76 percent of companies didn't even mention climate change in their reports. The report breaks down risk awareness and mitigation strategies by sector and finds them by and large falling short. The utilities industry scored highest, with over 96 percent of companies at least mentioning climate change, and over 35 percent identifying at least one risk and a strategy to address it. The IT and telecommunications sectors fared poorest, with no companies in either category identifying risks or solutions, and zero telecom firms mentioning climate change and just 6.5 percent of IT firms doing so.

The second report from the groups, "Climate Risk Disclosure in SEC Filings," analyzes more recent filings from some of these industries, and shows that, while the energy industries are disclosing climate change risks to a greater extent than other sectors, the detail and depth of those disclosures are far from sufficient to help investors make wise choices….

A little cold war nostalgia: A European worker rejects the American capitalist, who offers gifts of food and the "North Atlantic Pact" (i.e. NATO), which is disguising a rifle. The poster is intended to convince Soviet citizens that European working class protests against the expansion of the "militarist NATO bloc". Wikimedia Commons

Dengue cases diving in the Philippines

Philippine Information Agency: The government drive to reduce dengue cases is taking effect, the Department of Health reported Wednesday. During the launching of the government's nationwide anti-dengue campaign in Tondo, Manila, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque said the drop in cases is motivating government health workers to improve their services further.

"We are heartened by the heroic efforts of all those who worked hard so that there is a big 57.4% decrease in the number of dengue cases compared to the same period last year," Duque revealed, adding that even the case fatality rate has lowered to .9% compared to the 1% recorded in the same period. Duque disclosed that the first five months this year already showed a steady decrease in the number of cases.

Data showed that from January to May 9, there were only 6,537 cases recorded with 62 deaths; the previous year's (same period) figure was 15,334 cases with 163 deaths. Duque cited the role of the local chief executives in spearheading the campaign in their respective localities against the dreaded disease.

"Our success last year, however, should not lull us into complacency this year," Duque noted adding that dengue is now an all-year round phenomenon due to climate change. Duque also underscored diseases common during rainy season called WILD diseases. These consist of waterborne infectious diseases, influenza, leptospirosis, and dengue….

The current range of dengue fever, map created by Percherie, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

India threatened by changes to the monsoon: Greenpeace

Times of India: The Indian monsoon, the country's lifeline, will be significantly affected by climate change, says a report released by the NGO Greenpeace on the eve of World Environment Day. The report, Monsoon Wager: Climate change and the Indian Monsoon, says climate change could bring about significant change to the intensity, geographic distribution and inter seasonal breaks in the monsoon, which would have enormous social consequences.

"The lives of millions of Indians, farmers, city dwellers, even those trading on the Mumbai Sensex, depend on the monsoon. The unprecedented flooding that Mumbai experienced in 2005 is estimated to have caused a direct loss of about Rs.450 crore," said Vinuta Gopal, climate and energy campaigner of Greenpeace. "Mumbai and India cannot allow the delicate balance of the monsoon to be thrown awry; we cannot afford to adapt if the monsoons are impacted, we simply have to stop that from happening."

…Siddharth Pathak, Climate and Energy Campaigner, Greenpeace, said: "India has not been a historical contributor to the problem of climate change, but it has a lot to lose from the effects that climate change will have on its land and people. "Given that the science calls for drastic action to prevent a climate catastrophe, even developing countries such as India cannot afford to ignore the situation and need to move away from a 'business as usual' carbon intensive growth path."

Monsoon clouds over Nagercoli, India, shot by PlaneMad, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Climate change models find staple crops face ruin on up to one million square kilometers of African farmland

Science Daily: A new study by researchers from the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the United Kingdom's Waen Associates has found that by 2050, hotter conditions, coupled with shifting rainfall patterns, could make anywhere from 500,000 to one million square kilometers of marginal African farmland no longer able to support even a subsistence level of food crops. However, the land, on which some 20 to 35 million people currently live, may still support livestock.

Boosting livestock production could be an attractive alternative for millions of poor farmers across Africa who, in the coming decades, could find that climate change has rendered their lands unsuitable for crop cultivation yet still viable for raising animals, according to the study that appears this week in a special edition of the journal Environmental Science and Policy. "Livestock, particularly animals that are known to be tolerant of heat and drought, can survive in conditions that are far more severe than what crops can tolerate," said Philip Thornton, an ILRI scientist and one of the paper's co-authors. "Livestock can provide poor households with a buffer against the risk of climate change and, allow them to take advantage of the increasing demand for animal products in Africa."

"Any increase in livestock must be managed sustainably," said Carlos Seré, Director General of ILRI, which is one of 15 research centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). "But our research shows there are many areas in Africa where over the next few decades climate vulnerability coupled with market demand for animal products will prompt many farming communities to add more livestock to their agriculture systems and we should prepare now for this inevitability. "

…They concluded that under scenarios in which carbon emissions remain high, the number of reliable growing days would drop below 90 for almost one million square kilometers of marginal growing lands in Africa. Assuming a "lower emission scenario," they project about 500,000 square kilometers would fail to reach the 90-day mark. The researchers warn that if reliable growing periods drop below 90 days in these areas, "maize cultivation, already marginal, will basically no longer be possible as a normal agricultural activity." They continue, saying that in some places, rain could become so scarce that "even the drought-tolerant crops such as millet" will be difficult to grow. They say that in these conditions, livestock could be the key to keeping food on the table and for earning income as well…

A cow and sheep pastured together in South Africa, shot by Lollie-Pop, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Climate change threatens Mideast stability-study

Reuters: Climate change could spark "environmental wars" in the Middle East over already scarce water supplies and dissuade Israel from any pullout from occupied Arab land, an international report said on Tuesday. Almost 10 years of failed peace talks between Syria and Israel have focused on water in and around the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The vital resource is also a point of conflict between Israel and Palestinians seeking a state.

Regarding the Syria-Israel dispute, the report said Israeli concerns about "food security and reduced agricultural productivity could shift the strategic calculation on whether to withdraw" from the Golan Heights, occupied in a 1967 war. "The expectation of coming environmental wars might imply that the way to deal with shrinking resources is to increase military control over them," said the Danish-funded study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an independent organisation headquartered in Canada.

The Golan supplies 30 percent of the water for the Lake of Galilee, Israel's main water reservoir. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the report said sea-level rises as a result of climate change threatened to contaminate Gaza's sole aquifer supplying 1.5 million Palestinians in the territory. The coastal aquifer, which is shared by Israel, is the only source of fresh drinking water for Gaza, controlled by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. The report said its water quality was abysmal…

Gaza City, Palestine, in the tiny historical area called Gold Market. Shot by Ahron de Leeuw in 1976, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Poor countries 'unable' to absorb climate funding, EU warned

EurActiv: While governments haggle over the amounts needed to finance climate adaptation in developing countries in order to close a global agreement later this year, concerns are being raised that the demand side of adaptation has been ignored. If climate negotiators continue to have hang ups over the question of how much funding is needed for adaptation, they will fail to address the other key issue of establishing a mechanism to ensure that adaptation actually takes place, Philip Mikos, head of unit at the European Commission's development department, told a Development Policy Forum roundtable on 29 May.

Debating where the money for tackling climate change should come from, participants in the roundtable agreed that while funds for adaptation can be found, the demand side will need more work. It is not obvious that developing countries, some of which are already having difficulty absorbing development aid, will be able to make efficient use of the additional funds they could receive under a new global climate treaty, the forum heard.

"The most fundamental requirement is assets to demand," said Johan Schaar, director of the Swedish Commission on Climate Change and Development. He pointed out that much public funding will be needed to create safety nets in poor countries which guarantee sufficient income for people to access markets and adaptive technologies. Schaar argued that the three years between the conclusion of the climate agreement and its entry into force in 2012 will be crucial for poorer nations to build the capacity needed to benefit from future funding.

The roundtable also strongly argued against financing climate efforts through development assistance. Such funds should be additional and monitored by a global board to ensure that the money finds its way to those most in need. Official development assistance (ODA) has traditionally been seen as serving the donor countries' political interests rather than assisting the least-developed countries….

Gustave Doré, Jesus and the Pharisees dispute over tribute money

NASA satellite detects red glow to map global ocean plant health

NASA: Researchers have conducted the first global analysis of the health and productivity of ocean plants, as revealed by a unique signal detected by a NASA satellite. Ocean scientists can now remotely measure the amount of fluorescent red light emitted by ocean phytoplankton and assess how efficiently the microscopic plants are turning sunlight and nutrients into food through photosynthesis. They can also study how changes in the global environment alter these processes, which are at the center of the ocean food web.

Single-celled phytoplankton fuel nearly all ocean ecosystems, serving as the most basic food source for marine animals from zooplankton to fish to shellfish. In fact, phytoplankton account for half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth. The health of these marine plants affects commercial fisheries, the amount of carbon dioxide the ocean can absorb, and how the ocean responds to climate change. “This is the first direct measurement of the health of the phytoplankton in the ocean,” said Michael Behrenfeld, a biologist who specializes in marine plants at the Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. “We have an important new tool for observing changes in phytoplankton every week, all over the planet.”

Over the past two decades, scientists have employed various satellite sensors to measure the amount and distribution of the green pigment chlorophyll, an indicator of the amount of plant life in the ocean. But with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, scientists have now observed “red-light fluorescence” over the open ocean. “Chlorophyll gives us a picture of how much phytoplankton is present,” said Scott Doney, a marine chemist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and a co-author of the paper. “Fluorescence provides insight into how well they are functioning in the ecosystem.”…

This data-based map shows the "fluorescence yield" of phytoplankton in the oceans during 2004. "Fluorescence yield" is the fraction of absorbed sunlight that is given off by the plants as fluorescence and it changes with the health or stress of the phytoplankton. More fluorescence is emitted when waters are low in key nutrients such as iron. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Lawsuit filed to stop logging near Rio Grande headwaters

Environment News Service: Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit today challenging a logging project on national forest lands in southwestern Colorado that they claim would impact the headwaters of the Rio Grande river. Colorado Wild and WildEarth Guardians filed suit challenging the Handkerchief Mesa timber sale on the Rio Grande National Forest, represented by the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

The U.S. Forest Service proposes to manage timber and road resources in the Handkerchief Mesa Landscape, with various treatments including harvesting of 10 to 13 million board feet of timber, prescribed burning, and road management. The area runs from the town of South Fork to the Continental Divide, from Hwy 160 and Wolf Creek Pass on the west to Beaver Mountain, Willow Park and Crystal Lakes on the east.

"This is the headwaters of the Rio Grande and deserves the most cautious management," said Bryan Bird, public lands director at WildEarth Guardians. "Pushing a logging project in the worst lumber market in history is simply foolish, especially when our national forests provide higher value to Americans in clean water, recreation and fighting climate change," said Bird….

The cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon provide a cool shady area at the Rio Grande River contrasting with the blistering desert beyond. Shot by Ultratomio, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Fisheries and aquaculture in a changing climate

ReliefWeb: Climate change impacts such as more frequent and severe floods and droughts will affect the food and water security of many people. The impact of climate change on aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture, however, is not as well known. This policy brief, a joint partnership between several agencies, highlights this issue to ensure that decision makers and climate change negotiators consider aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture at the UNFCCC COP-15 in Copenhagen, December 2009.

The build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (1) is changing several of the features of the Earth's climate, oceans, coasts and freshwater ecosystems that affect fisheries and aquaculture - air and sea surface temperatures, rainfall, sea level, acidity of the ocean, wind patterns, and the intensity of tropical cyclones.

Fishers, fish farmers and coastal inhabitants will bear the full force of these impacts through less stable livelihoods, changes in the availability and quality of fish for food, and rising risks to their health, safety and homes. Many fisheries-dependent communities already live a precarious and vulnerable existence because of poverty, lack of social services and essential infrastructure. The fragility of these communities is further undermined by overexploited fishery resources and degraded ecosystems.

…Investments are urgently needed to mitigate these growing threats and adapt to their impacts - but also in building our knowledge of complex ocean and aquatic processes….

Seabirds follow a longline fishing vessel, image from NOAA

Deforestation talks in Bonn

In the Katoomba Group’s Ecosystem Marketplace, Evan Johnson has a useful summary of the talks in Bonn, now underway: …Delegates from 182 nations are beginning to arrive in the former German capital of Bonn to hammer their preferences into a 53-page negotiating text that will be kicked around ad nauseum between now and December, when the final version is set to be presented to high-level negotiators UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen. On Monday, the working groups charged with hashing out sticky policy issues (see The UNFCCC Process, right) approved their agendas for the next two weeks, and not surprisingly Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) figures prominently.

… It is an axiom of life that money complicates everything, and so it is for REDD. Over the course of the last Bonn meetings, the debate continued regarding how to finance the reduction of deforestation in developing countries. Should REDD be financed in the model of traditional government-to-government development funding, or should it be linked to a market, and should it generate credits that can be used by industrialized countries to meet their emissions targets? No consensus was reached on these questions in previous Bonn meetings, but there was a general trend in the discussions towards developing a hybrid approach combining the various funding options.

…Leaving REDD aside, carbon emissions and sequestration from changing land use are already a part of the Kyoto Protocol, where industrialized countries must account for their LULUCF emissions. During a meeting of another of the working groups referred to above, the AWG-KP, a carbon accounting option suggested by the European Union caused quite a stir. The accounting method, known as the "bar approach", proposes that a country would have a reference level of LULUCF emissions (or reductions), based on some agreed-upon historical baseline. If the country went below that emission level, it would be credited; if it went above, it would be debited.

…The rights of Indigenous Peoples in the development and implementation of REDD also continued to be a contentious issue at previous Bonn meetings, with a number of organizations contending that little was being done to enable the participation of indigenous communities, or to protect the right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), as provided in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples....

The Alte Rathaus in Bonn, shot by Leonce49, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 Germany License

Water weed chokes Zambian power supply for copper

Reuters: Zambia's state-run power utility is rationing electricity to its vital copper mines because a water weed, introduced from Brazil in the 1990s as a flower, has blocked flows into the biggest hydro power dam. The southern African country, the continent's largest copper producer, is also rationing power supply to manufacturers while domestic users have been cut off and traffic disrupted by the failure of lights, a company official said on Tuesday.

The utility company Zesco Ltd.'s spokeswoman, Lucy Zimba, said the aquatic weeds had choked the flow of water into a dam at Kafue Gorge power station, forcing it to halt some generation units and cutting 360 megawatts of Kafue's 990 MW capacity. Zambia has a total generation capacity of 1,600 MW.

"We have had 360 megawatts of power out of our system since May 30 and this has caused major disruptions. It has affected the mines (and) other industries,"" Zimba told Reuters. "We are also carrying out further investigations to see whether it is only the weeds that have caused this little flow of water," she added. Zambia's power supply has been affected by the plant, known as Kafue weed, over the past 10 years….

An open pit at the Nkana mine in Zambia, shot by Per Arne Wilson, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5, Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 and Attribution ShareAlike 1.0 License

Laos's largest dam behind schedule: company

Terra Daily, via Agence France-Presse: Laos's largest infrastructure project, the Nam Theun 2 hydropower development, is behind schedule but the power company said Monday it remains hopeful that the lost time can be made up. Logistical problems in a heavy wet season caused "significant delays" late last year to completion of electro-mechanical works inside the power station, said Aiden Glendinning, spokesman for the Nam Theun 2 Power Company.

Heavy rains delayed the movement of equipment to the site in central Laos on the Nakai plateau, where it is being built on the Nam Theun river, a tributary of the Mekong. … Efforts were made this year to recover the time lost but "while some ground has been regained, there are still delays in the schedule," Glendinning said, adding the contractors remain committed to meeting the December 15 deadline.

…The World Bank-backed development required about 8,000 workers operating on 14 separate construction sites spread over 200 kilometres (124 miles). Slight delays on a project of such a size and complexity "would not be unusual," the spokesman said. Relocation of 6,301 villagers to make way for the project's reservoir was finished last June, he said, and the 450-square kilometer reservoir is now at about 90 percent of capacity.

After years of opposition from environmentalists, work on the 1.45-billion-dollar Lao-French-Thai project began in November 2005. It will have a generating capacity of 1,070 megawatts…..

Tackling Benin's flooding

AllAfrica.com via the Vanguard (Nigeria): Two heavy downpours, a Saturday evening, a month ago, brought Benin City to a standstill…Each time it rains, the busiest road in Edo State transforms into a water trough until hours later, or days after, depending on the intensity of the rain.

Before the construction of the Benin Bypass, Lagos Street bore all the heavy traffic from the East, Niger Delta, North, and Western Nigeria through Benin City. The place of Benin City as a road transport hub reflects in the large number of transportation companies owned by Benin-based business people. If not for the bypass, the rain of the day in question would have grounded movement in all direction for hours.

It is one of the mysteries of Nigeria that in its 46 years as the capital of the Mid-Western Region, Mid-Western State, Bendel State and much later, Edo State, Benin City, has degenerated in the quality of its infrastructure, while newer state capitals without its pedigree flaunt better roads and municipal services.

Of particular note is the neglect of the trunk road that goes through it which is also one of the most flooded parts of the city. Partly, because of this neglect, Benin City has joined the unenviable club of erosion-prone areas of the state and country at large. Lack of drainage forces excessive amount of water to seep into the ground and soften it for erosion….

Seen on the Ring Road in Benin City, shot by Jaymz Height-Field, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation

Wiping out the world's mass migrations

American Museum of Natural History: …[A]ll of the world's large-scale terrestrial migrations have been severely reduced and a quarter of the migrating species are suspected to no longer migrate at all because of human changes to the landscape. A recently published research paper highlights this global change and presents the first analysis of the dwindling mass migrations.

"Conservation science has done a poor job in understanding how migrations work, and as a result many migrations have gone extinct," says Grant Harris of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, first author of the paper in Endangered Species Research.

…Migrations of large-bodied herbivores (also called ungulates) occur when animals search for higher quality or more abundant food. Ecologically, there are two primary drivers of food availability. In temperate regions of the world, higher-quality food shifts predictably as the seasons change, and animals respond by moving along well-established routes. For savannah ecosystems, rain and fire allow higher-quality food to grow. This is a less predictable change that animals must track across expansive landscapes.

Human activity now prevents large groups of ungulates from following their food. Fencing, farming, and water restrictions have changed the landscape and over-harvesting of the animals themselves has played a role in reducing the number of migrants.

…."If we are going to conserve migrations and species, we need to identify what needs to be done: where migrations remain, how far animals move, their habitat needs and location, threats, and the knowledge gaps needed to be filled," says co-author Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Montana. "For some of these species, such as the wildebeest and eland in Botswana, threats were identified decades ago. We as a society have made little progress at figuring out how to save migrations."….

Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) running in snow, image by J. Berger/WCS, from the Museum's website

Conference examines human-rights side of climate change

Vivian Luu in the Daily of the University of Washington: More than 40 legal experts gathered at the UW School of Law last week to look into how future laws and policies could affect victims of climate change. Legal scholars, leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGO) and policy makers convened for “Three Degrees: The Law of Climate Change and Human Rights Conference” to confront the humanitarian crisis that could come hand-in-hand with climate change. The conference aimed to influence policy makers who will attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference later this year in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Conference panelist Alex Steffen is founder of Worldchanging, an online publication about sustainability. He said that although environmental sustainability is a design and engineering problem, there is more to the issue. “Our lack of progress toward sustainability is entirely a political problem,” Steffen said.

…“First, we must educate ourselves about the impacts of climate change,” Robinson said. “Second, countries must take responsibility for their contribution to climate change.” UW atmospheric sciences professor David Battisti said climate change is also a human-rights issue because it could impact half of the world’s population….

A gavel, shot by Avjoska, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

A global responsibility to help vulnerable communities adapt

Physorg: For one international community - the 165,000 strong Inuit community dispersed across the Arctic coastline in small, remote coastal settlements in Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia - it is already too late to prevent some of the negative effects of climate change.

James D. Ford from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, is today, Thursday, 28 May, presenting a paper published in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters, "Dangerous climate change and the importance of adaptation for the Arctic's Inuit population," at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences annual conference.

Policy makers and scientists at 'Congress 2009 — Capital Connections: nation, terroir, territoire', will be listening to Ford's research which details why we must all act now to help the Inuit and other vulnerable communities adapt.

Increasing sea levels, coastal erosion, changing sea ice conditions, and permafrost thaw threatens municipal infrastructure, such as transport links, the survival of Inuit subsistence hunting and fishing activities, and the fabric of Inuit culture and society. With many scientists agreeing that we are near to or beyond the "tipping point" for climate change, there is still a need to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions, but we must now focus on how we can help those who are going to be hit hard by climate changes already well under way.

Ford's paper provides a summary of the latest work in adaptation science and concludes with the need to set up a vulnerable people's adaptation fund. He states that it can only work if support is provided by the largest state actors. Short term investment now can help vulnerable peoples prevent risk but also increase preparedness to reduce susceptibility….

Inuit kayakers, Noatak, Alaska. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis, ca. 1929.

The most exciting headline you'll read today: Advances in spray-on mulches

Science Daily: Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agricultural engineer Greg Holt helped develop the erosion control industry's first cotton hydromulch "spray-on blanket." Holt is at the ARS Cotton Production and Processing Research Unit in Lubbock, Texas.

Hydromulch is the bright-green mulch used in spray-on slurries that cover bare lands at construction sites and roadside projects, to prevent erosion until vegetation can be established. In the past, hydromulches were made mostly from wood and paper byproducts.

GeoSkin® Cotton Hydromulch is made from cotton gin byproducts. It is a combination hydromulch/spray-on erosion-control blanket that performs better than conventional roll-on blankets and requires significantly less labor. Holt and colleagues tested the prototype against commercial erosion control blankets made of straw, wood and coconut.

…One of Holt's studies showed that cotton-based hydromulches established a good stand of grass, compared to other hydromulches and a straw blanket which didn't do as well….

A generic mulch shot, by Mikereichold, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

Study finds climate change boosts Texas storm flood risk

Reuters: Climate change over the next 20 to 70 years can be expected to increase hurricane flooding in Corpus Christi, Texas, home of three U.S. refineries, according to a study by Texas A&M University sponsored by the National Commission on Energy Policy released on Monday. Corpus Christi, on the south Texas coast, already faces the risk of widespread flooding from the most powerful hurricanes, according to the study.

"Flooding and damage from major hurricanes will be more severe," said study author Jennifer Irish, assistant professor of coastal and ocean engineering at Texas A&M University, in a statement. "And the worse global warming gets, the more severe the consequences for the Texas coast."

….The coastal land on which Corpus Christi sits is sinking due to geological forces and oil extraction. Mustang and Padre Islands, which provide barriers to Corpus Christi Bay, are eroding. Sea levels at Corpus Christi are expected to rise about 2.6 feet by 2080, further reducing the protection of the barrier islands. Melting of the ice sheets around the world may increase the amount by which seas rise. "Higher sea level means higher flood levels," according to the study….

An 1887 map of Corpus Christi, Texas