SUBSCRIBE: Internet Subscription Special

THE HOT HOUSE

April 7, 2008

Purdue University researchers have come up with a new map showing the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions nationwide. The image on the right is a cut-out of California taken from a larger U.S. map you can find here.

The Purdue research project, called Vulcan, shows where CO2 is being emitted in 10-kilometer grids, based on data from sources including factories, power plants, airports and highway travel. The map offers more than 100 times the detail of previous inventories of carbon dioxide, according to Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor at Purdue who is leading the project.

The image displays metric tons of carbon per year per grid in a logarithmic base-10 scale.

As you can see from the map, the hot spots in the Golden State include Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's daily flight route between Brentwood and Sacramento.

For more on Vulcan, go here. (And no, Mr. Spock was not involved in this project).

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 5:39 PM | Comments

October 8, 2007

Loyal and insightful readers know that the Hot House is focused on California's climate laws and the players that are trying to influence the outcome. We'd prefer not to venture too much into the larger debate on climate science, since there are plenty of other sites devoted to that purpose.

Still, it is hard to ignore the unexpected melt-off of the Arctic ice sheets this summer. Warm winds and other factors have created a one million square mile expanse of open water in the Arctic -- the size of six Californias -- beyond what scientists measured when they first started taking satellite photographs in 1979.

The New York Times has an interactive graphic on the melt-off that is not to be missed. You can find it here.

Sacramento Bee Photo/Morris Weintraub

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 5:31 PM | Comments

September 20, 2007

The Hot House needs to buy some new book shelves to handle all the reports on climate change that are coming my way. Here three that were released Thursday:

-- Environment California makes a case for why regulators in California and elsewhere should auction allowances to industries subject to an expected cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases. The report is called "Cleaner, Cheaper, Smarter" and can be found here.

-- The Pacfic Research Institute for Public Policy takes a swipe at climate change alarmists in a report called "Hysteria's History." Like others of its kind, the report suggests that extremists are overhyping the global warming threat. Unclear if PRI considers includes the National Academy of Sciences and Wangari Maathai in this classification.

-- On the other wide of the political spectrum, the Urban Land Institute and other groups have released a report examining how spread-out development patterns -- generally known as sprawl -- are complicating the task of reducing greenhouse emissions. More compact development patterns could reduce vehicle miles traveled in the United States by 30 percent, says the "Growing Cooler" report, with a corresponding reduction in greenhouse emissions.

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 6:17 PM | Comments

August 31, 2007

Here's some cheerful news for those of us who live in the Sacramento flood plain: A new study in the journal Nature predicts that global warming will cause worse flooding than previously thought.

Previous predictions overlooked the fact that rising levels of carbon dioxide decrease the ability of plants to draw water from the ground. In other words, as the atmosphere becomes more concentrated with CO2, the rain that falls on watersheds (such as the American River basin) won't be absorbed by forests and plants to the degree it was previously. As a result, "The risks of rain and river flooding may increase more than has been previously anticipated, because intense precipitation events would be more likely to occur over saturated ground," the study says.

On the other hand, the research suggests droughts may not be as severe as previously predicted, because plants won't demand as much water as they did in the past. So, assuming scientists are correct, this aspect of climate change may benefit water-poor Southern California, and overwhelm us in water-rich Northern California.

Story on study here, and link to Nature's study here.

Sacramento Bee Photo/Paul Kitigaki

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 3:29 PM | Comments

June 26, 2007

The Stanford Environmental Law Journal has an interesting article arguing that insurance companies will increasingly influence corporate behavior as the science of global warming becomes more widely recognized.

Insurance companies, the authors note, are "uniquely positioned between the two ends of the climate-change spectrum -- the causes and impacts. Insurers insure carbon-intensive industries as well as homes, autos, and pollution-emitting airplanes that are some of the primary causes of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions...At the same time, insurers and their trade allies expose themselves to the liabilities faced by customers of these insured businesses, and to 'in-house' liabilities potentially arising from their own actions in responding to the challenge."

Corporate directors should take note of this article, written by Christina Ross, manager of technical services at LaCroix Davis; Evan Mills, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Sean Hecht, executive director of The Environmental Law Center at UCLA School of Law.

The writers point out that 53 per cent of the largest 500 publicly held companies aren't doing an adequate job of disclosing climate risks to investors and could face lawsuits as a result. They might even face allegations of fraud or misrepresentation if there is evidence that officials ignored or covered up material information.

You can find an abstract of the paper here.

Photo/Business Wire

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 3:10 PM | Comments

June 8, 2007

Two recent reports offer starkly different assessments of how California's global warming laws will affect its economy.

"Golden Opportunity," prepared by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Environmental Entrepreneurs, includes case studies of businesses that have led in energy efficiency and see a bright future with caps on greenhouse gases.

"California can tackle the biggest environmental challenge of our time while bringing jobs, efficiency and economy opportunity to the state," says the concluding chapter of the report.

Meanwhile, the Electric Power Research Institute released an analysis today of how California's laws will affect electricity costs. The numbers are not pretty.

EPRI estimates cumulative real costs to the state's economy of $100 billion to $511 billion, with the higher range depending on whether the state adopts a regulatory approach as opposed to a cap and trade approach for reducing emissions.

The EPRI report cost $1.2 million, with part of the funding coming from Southern California Edison.

Sacramento Bee Photo/Andy Alfaro

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 3:53 PM | Comments

May 4, 2007

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change today makes a strong case that nations can ward off the worst impacts of global warming, if they act quickly. Enviro groups are all over this. Yet missing from their flood of press releases is the fact that the IPCC report lists nuclear power as a "key mitigation strategy" for reducing greenhouse gases. (See page 13 of the summary.)

The nuke industry hasn't missed this detail. The blog of the Nuclear Energy Institute was anticipating this finding in a May 3 posting, a day before the report was released.

FYI, The Bee will run an editorial on the IPCC report Sunday. You can find it here.

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 2:22 PM | Comments

April 24, 2007

report was prepared by CNA Corp., a national security think tank in Alexandria, Va.

"On the simplest level, (global warming) has the potential to create sustained natural and humanitarian disasters on a scale far beyond those we see today," the generals concluded.

The photo below -- which I took from a helicopter -- shows how Hurricane Katrina tossed around container cars in New Orleans in 2005.

Perhaps this what the generals meant by "sustained natural and humanitarian disasters"?

Posted by Stuart Leavenworth at 6:00 PM | Comments

WHAT IS THE HOT HOUSE?

California has passed the nation's first statewide laws to control carbon dioxide and other emissions linked to global warming. Now comes the tough part: Translating statutes into action. Corporate CEOs, European ministers and others are all watching what happens here in Sacramento. This blog will track the implementation of California’s laws and the power players that are trying to influence the outcome.

WHAT ARE THE LAWS?

AB 32
Signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. Requires the state to reduce its global warming emissions to 1990 levels (a 25 percent reduction) by 2020, with a further 80 percent reduction by 2050.

SB 1368
Also enacted in 2006. Requires utilities to purchase long-term power contracts from sources that are as "clean" – in terms of carbon emissions – as the most efficient natural gas-fired power plants. Effectively bans new contracts with out-of-state coal power plants.

AB 1493
Signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis in 2002. Requires motor vehicles sold in California by 2009 to achieve the maximum feasible reduction of greenhouse gases. The major automobile manufacturers are now challenging it in court.

STUART LEAVENWORTH

Bio
E-mail

SEARCH

May 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

RSS FEEDS

Sacbee.com | SacTicket.com | Sacramento.com

Site Navigation