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Climate Capsule: Week of June 23

(National Wildlife Federation)

Global Warming and Severe Weather

"As so many grapple with catastrophic flooding in the central United States, our thoughts and prayers are with those in harm's way," said Larry Schweiger, President and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

"The big picture is that global warming is making tragedies like these more frequent and more intense. Global warming is happening now. Our dependency on fossil fuels like oil and coal is causing the problem, and people and wildlife are witnessing the effects."�

The United States Climate Change Science Program recently released a report on weather and climate extremes. The assessment included major findings that severe weather is likely to become more frequent in our daily lives. As humans continue to increase global warming pollution, the report says that we're also likely to see increases in droughts, heavy downpours, excessive heat, and intense hurricanes.

"Although no single weather event can be attributed to global warming, it's critical to understand that a warming climate is supplying the very conditions that fuel these kinds of weather events: it is a law of physics that warmer air is able to carry more water," said Schweiger. "Science tells us that we are experiencing trends toward more heavy precipitation events, especially in the eastern half of the continental United States during summer."

"Many of our past solutions, such as basing predictions only on past flooding histories, instead of foreseeable future conditions and relying on levees that give occupants a false sense of security, must be rethought in light of increasing development and global warming.

"To get at the root of the problem and avoid continued catastrophes like this, we need to reduce global warming pollution that is fueling a warming climate."

Drilling Is No Short-Term, Nor Long-Term Answer

Last week, President Bush urged members of Congress to overturn a 26-year ban on offshore oil drilling and open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil exploration. The president said this domestic drilling would "take pressure off gas prices over time by expanding the amount of American-made oil and gasoline."

Adam Kolton, the National Wildlife Federation's senior director of congressional and federal affairs, responded that gas prices have soared 250 percent under the Bush Administration's energy policies. "Opening up America's most precious places for more oil drilling would not lower gas prices this summer, but it would reap more profits for oil companies. It would also exacerbate our dependence on oil, increase global warming pollution and threaten our energy security. That's no answer.

"Even if we opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration right now, it would take more than a decade to reach peak production and a projected drop in prices at the pump of just four cents. In the meantime, we'd see more windfall profits for Big Oil.

"It's time to take America's energy policy in a new direction with strong climate legislation cutting carbon emissions and providing new incentives for clean energy. The Department of Energy says climate legislation could slash oil imports by nearly three billion barrels a year, saving Americans $180 billion through the year 2030 on foreign oil expenditures. We need to move on from the failed policies of the Bush administration and recharge America's economy with clean energy."

Quote:  "If we were to drill today, realistically speaking, we should not expect a barrel of oil coming out of this new resource for three years, maybe even five years, so let's not kid ourselves."

-- Fadel Gheit, oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. Equity Capital Markets Division, reacts to domestic drilling prospects.

Business Leaders Demand Climate Action Now

The planet's developed nations must take the lead to fight global warming and push to reduce emissions by 2050, a group of business leaders said last Friday.

The World Economic Forum met in Tokyo and presented proposals to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. The proposals urged the Group of Eight countries - which will hold a summit in July - to set nearer-term reduction goals.

"Nothing less than a rapid and fundamental strategy to reach a low-carbon world economy is needed," said the proposal, which was backed by 99 CEOs of global companies.

While the wealthiest of nations should take the lead, emerging economies such as India and China will also have to be part of the greenhouse gases reduction strategy in the long-term. "Those countries who are currently developing fast will not be able to avoid their future responsibilities," the proposal said.

"The new framework should construct an ambitious, but achievable, emissions reduction strategy for the short to medium-term," the group said.

The business leaders also called for support of all clean technologies, products and services to adapt to changes caused by rising temperatures, and long-term policies to provide a stable investment climate.

Climate Change Science: What About The Ecosystems?

A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research details adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources. While major floods can never by fully contained, the increased risk of catastrophic floods from global warming highlights the need for long-term flood plain and wetlands restoration, to at least lessen the devastation caused to people and our natural world from major flooding.

Dedicated natural resource adaptation investment coming through global warming legislation would go to state, tribal and federal agencies to do projects such as restoring wetlands and riparian areas along flood prone rivers. This investment would also help put private land most vulnerable to floods under conservation easement for the protection of wildlife and natural resources, simultaneously keeping development and agriculture off high risk areas.

The United States needs to immediately begin reducing emissions of global warming pollution to lessen the growing risk of catastrophic floods, while preparing for that heightened risk by providing dedicated investment to natural resource adaptation.

Home Depot Offers Recycling for Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Some major retailers are promoting compact fluorescent light bulbs (C.F.L.'s) as a way to conserve energy and help protect our environment. Improper disposal of these bulbs, however, may create a hazard because they contain small amounts of mercury.

Recycling your efficient bulbs is about to get easier. Home Depot, the nation's second-largest retailer, will begin collecting old compact fluorescent bulbs in each of its stores in the United States. This initiative will create the nation's most widespread recycling program for C.F.L.'s. Across most of the country, recycling the bulbs has been inconvenient at best. Industry professionals estimate that the recycling rate is around 2 percent.

"We kept hearing from the community that there was a little bit of concern about mercury in the C.F.L.'s," said Ron Jarvis, Home Depot's senior vice president for environmental innovation, using the industry abbreviation for the bulbs. "And if the C.F.L.'s were in their house, how could they dispose of them?"�

"We're trying to do the right thing," he said. "Some of the things that we do are for the community and not for the bottom line." The evident demand for a light bulb recycling program became apparent to the retailer as sales of compact fluorescents climbed to 75 million last year, from about 50 million in 2006.