Insult to Injury

Researchers have determined that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged or killed some 320 million large trees across 5 million acres of Gulf Coast forests. Those trees, when healthy, would normally act as a carbon sink, storing carbon in their tissue and in the soil, but dead and decomposing vegetation releases carbon to the atmosphere. Scientists estimate that total carbon losses from the storms are equal to 60 to 100 percent of the total carbon stored by all US forests in a year.

Prayin' for Rain

Georgia Governor and stalwart global warming skeptic, Sonny Perdue, is looking to the Lord to free his state from the extreme drought currently afflicting it and much of the Southeast. "We have come together, very simply, for one reason and one reason only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm," he said at a recent rally in which the faithful beseeched the Almighty to, for God's sake, let it rain.

This report in The Independent ("The big thirst: The great American water crisis") looks at the environmental record of the region's leadership, highlighting its monetary ties to the coal-fired behemoth, Southern Company (according to a report in today's Washington Post, "a single Southern Co. plant in Juliette, Ga., emits more [carbon dioxide] annually than Brazil's entire power sector,") its lack of initiative when it comes to conservation measures, and its recalcitrance on the issue of global warming. As the report notes, "Georgia's state assembly recently organised a climate change summit in which three of the four experts invited were global-warming sceptics." The Georgia Sierra Club's Patty Durand tells the paper:

It's very backward here. ...It also has to do with money as almost all the politicians here are funded by big polluting industry. There is little awareness of the environmental impact of industry. In spite of the drought, Georgia now wants to build a new coal-powered plant that will suck away another 25 million extra gallons of water and pour ever more carbon into the atmosphere. They just don't get it.

The situation is especially dire in the mountain village of Orme near Chattanooga, where the water is shut off for 21 hours a day. Says one resident of the normally lush locale: "This drought has turned us into hillbillies."

Scary Outlook

Last week saw the release of The United Nations Environment Programme's Global Environment Outlook. It is a rather monstrous 540 pages (22.5-mb PDF), but the press release alone is frightening enough.

Maybe what is scarier is that I was hard pressed to find much mention of it in any U.S. press. Perhaps, they are still hard at work digesting the full weight of it. There is, however, plenty to read in foreign papers.

The Times (U.K.) science editor, Marc Henderson, writes in his piece: "Though the report's language might sound extreme, with talk of 'humanity's very survival' at risk, the structure of the WEO actually lends itself to conservatism. Its findings deserve to be taken very seriously as a result -- this is not scaremongering to make a point."

When the point's as important as this one, is scaremongering really such a bad thing? OK, point taken that this report is pure, peer-reviewed science -- and scary to boot.

Although the report does highlight and praise some progress, it points to persistent and intractable problems. Can you guess what those might be?

Climbers Take Stock

In the 2007 American Alpine Journal, the annual publication of the American Alpine Club, mountain guide Joe Stock writes about "The Front Lines of Climate Change" -- the mountains, that is, where many classic climbing routes have literally disappeared thanks to the ravages of global warming. Writes Stock:

Most Americans hear a lot about climate change, but their conversation on the subject may be spurred only by a heat wave or a balmy winter; their interest soon dies and they go on with their lives. The situation is different for those of us who play and work on glaciers. We have climate change shoved in our faces on every trip.

He challenges his cramponed comrades to share what they see: "Tell your stories. Blow up your photos. Write a story for your local paper. You don't have to be a scientist. Just tell them what you see."

But of course, climbers themselves are part of the problem, jetting around as they do on months-long expeditions and hitting the road for weekend forays. To mitigate that impact, Stock and fellow Anchorage climbers are working to incorporate offsets into the cost of flying with bush pilots into the Alaska Range. To learn more, see Climb Green.

Ode to the Cryosphere

The exquisitely produced Northwest Mountaineering Journal features an excellent (that is to say, brief, clear and accessible) article on the status of the glaciers in Washington's North Cascades region -- home to the largest concentration of glaciers in the Lower 48. The prognosis is not good. Investigator Mauri Pelto concludes:

All 47 glaciers monitored by our project are currently undergoing a significant retreat or have disappeared altogether. Ongoing temperature rises combined with a reduction in snow accumulation in the North Cascades have resulted in widespread disequilibrium. Even the wet winter of 2007 yielded barely above-average snowpack in the mountains as more of that precipitation fell as rain.

The net loss over the last 20 years is a significant portion of the total glacier volume, estimated at 18 to 32 percent. Sadly, prevailing conditions provide little evidence that North Cascade glaciers are close to equilibrium. Their ongoing thinning indicates that all of the glaciers will continue to retreat into the foreseeable future.

The naysayers are fond of pointing to the relatively few areas in the world (such as those in Norway and on California's Mount Shasta) where glaciers are bucking this trend as proof that global warming is bunk. But don't be fooled. With very few exceptions, what is happening in the North Cascades is being repeated in all glaciated regions around the globe with serious repercussions on alpine ecosystems and water supply in many arid lowland regions that depend on seasonal snowmelt.

As a postscript, glacier aficionados will also want to read the profile of self-made glacier expert and photographer Austin Post.

Friend or Foe?

This can't turn out well for the husky. Or can it? You really should watch this slideshow.

Of course, it doesn't always turn out that way, but I'll refrain from linking to that footage.

Big Game

To turn my last bear posting on its head, just when you come to accept the fundamental goodness of your fellow man, you see something like this.

The above video depicts a legal hunt in the Katmai National Park and Preserve, where many bears have become habituated to the presence of fishermen and bear viewing tours. (You can see photos of the hunt here.) That habituation doesn't make the bears tame by any means, but it does makes them easy picking for the likes of the "sportsmen" shown in the video. That shouldn't be construed as a knee-jerk anti-hunting response, by the way. It's not, but I challenge anyone to watch the footage and tell me how sporting it is.

The Anchorage Daily News reports:

The hunters who shot the Katmai grizzly achieved "their proximity without much of a stalk. It looks more like a saunter through tundra," said Sean Farley, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game's bear biologist for a large part of the state that includes the Alaska Peninsula.

"It's not fair chase."

Farley saw the video Friday afternoon. It surprised him, he said.

"I feel personally remiss as the regional biologist that I haven't thought it out that this is what's going on out there," Farley said. "Not until I saw the video did I realize how bad it is. It's not appropriate."

For his part, Jim Hamilton, the man who owns the guiding concession in the park issued a statement saying it was a "very sad day" because the "hunters were participating in a perfectly legal hunt (and) had their entire experience ruined by others who chose to use illegal methods to harass and interfere with their hunt." He also suggested that he might level "criminal and civil charges" against the videographers.