A panel discussion hosted the other day by Monmouth University's Urban Coast Institute and co-sponsored by the Jersey Shore Partnership and Monmouth-Ocean Development Council said that climate change is forcing changes in everything from insurance costs to community planning:
City planners are looking to protect critical infrastructure from sea-level rise, conservatively projected at 1 to 2 feet in this century, he said.
Even if storms don't increase in strength and frequency, that sea-level rise will mean that today's storm floods of about 8 feet above mean low water will occur five times as frequently, Horton told the gathering in Wilson Hall.
And the first people to feel the impact of the changes will be towns along the shoreline:
"Coastal communities are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to global warming," said Belmar Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle, who talked about mitigation plans for his town, such as redirecting storm water drainage away from Silver Lake, and even developing a contingency plan to pump storm overflows from Lake Como into the sea.
These plans have to take place now, but a bigger problem may be who is ultimately responsible when the changes occur:
Legal issues will loom along with the advancing ocean. Under common law, the state owns all lands washed by tidal waters, and "in a rising sea-level context . . . those two feet that go underwater, who will own that?" said lawyer J. Wylie Donald, who handles climate change and energy issues for the law firm McCarter & English.
A 1900 state court decision held that natural shoreline changes - or "alluvial formations," as those judges called them - can alter tidelands boundaries, and "'that rule is going to be very important for a rising sea level jurisprudence," Donald said.
But tidelands law is complicated, and the last time the Legislature tried to resolve a major dispute, it took 15 years until the state finally staked all its tidelands claims in 1982, he recalled.
"You may have that same kind of problem," Donald added. "Several billion dollars of property transferred to the state under common law? That could be problematic."
So not only does planning have to go on over how to adapt as the landscape literally changes at their feet, the law will have to keep up in the process to determine who is responsible without another major dispute.
Cap and trade with offsets would guarantee that we pass climate tipping points, locking in climate disasters for our children. Cap and trade benefits only Wall Street and polluters, sacrificing humanity and nature for their profits. Dr. James Hansen
Will the media and policy makers finally wake up and pay attention after the world's leading global warming scientists takes the extraordinary and unprecedented step to publicly criticize US national environmental groups for their lax posture on global warming?
Or will the mighty Obama Administration, Democratic Washington DC beltway, and corporate PR Wurlitzer continue to dominate US public opinion?
[Update: NYC Independent media: NRDC Protested For Greenwashing and Support of Carbon Trading and Coal!
Alternet: Activists Protest Environmental Agency for Collaborating With Polluters
After years of battling NJ environmental groups for their support of the symbolic political gesture known as the NJ Global Warming Response Act (see NJ Star Ledger Op-Ed: "No teeth in "tough" pollution law" ) and the fatally flawed Regional Green House Gas Initiative (RGGI) cap and trade program (e.g. see "Lame Global Warming Bill Goes to Governor", and see this and this) (both supported by NRDC), I am so glad that someone is now calling out national environmental groups for similar sell outs.
That much needed criticism could not have come from a more credible source or at a better time - Dr. James Hansen, world renown global warming scientist.
Today, in an effort to pierce the mounting propaganda war in the run up to the global warming treaty negotiations in Copenhagen, world renown atmospheric scientist Jim Hansen broke new ground by calling out both the Bank of America (for financing coal power) AND the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for supporting fatally flawed "cap and trade" legislation.
I know I was livid when I learned that NRDC supports "carbon capture and storage" (CCS), when NJ Activists are fighting to block a massive $5 billion coal plant called "PurGen" planned for Linden, NJ. That CCS plant would pipe CO2 70 miles out and "store" it 1 and 1/2 miles deep under the ocean.Recently, I wrote:
Why are national "environmental groups" supporting new coal power plants and so called "clean coal technology"? (link)
I refer to Senate testimony yesterday by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in support of the so called "clean coal technology" incentives in the Kerry Senate global warming bill:
Here's the testimony of NRDC:
I was even angrier at NRDC when I learned that they had done an end run around Copenhagen global negotiations and worked with China on a bilateral US - China coal and CCS deal.
On the 10th anniversary of the "Battle of Seatle" protests against the WTO, Hansen joined Climate Justice activists in New York as part of a nationwide mobilization and explained why the world is at a critical juncture that requires mandatory steep cuts in emissions, not the flawed market based cap and trade approach of the pending Waxman-Markey and Kerry -Boxer bills. (see this YouTube "The Huge Mistake" for explanation of flaws in cap/trade). Hansen said:
Cap and trade with offsets would guarantee that we pass climate tipping points, locking in climate disasters for our children. Cap and trade benefits only Wall Street and polluters, sacrificing humanity and nature for their profits."
Hansen has joined AL Gore and called for civil disobedience to stop mountaintop mining, block construction of new coal power plants, and force the shut down of existing plants.
Let's hope that Hansen's groundbreaking truth telling move to call out big national environmental groups is a game changer.
And let's hope that the media pierces the spin machine in the run up to Copenhagen and critically scrutinizes government claims. Thus far, it seems like there are major efforts underway, including those by the Obama administration, to spin failure as a success.
Check out photo's from today's NYC protest event below:
I'm pretty happy Frank LoBiondo joined Chris Smith and Leonard Lance in voting for energy independence and fighting climate change. Conservatives are not. It's too late to be a Quote of a Day, but I still like how LoBiondo's spokesperson told conservatives to STFU:
"Now we're getting flooded with emails and calls, but those are coming from outside of New Jersey," he said. "If people in Texas are pissed and angry at his vote, then they're angry about his vote. I don't think they even knew who Frank LoBiondo was before this."
While global warming is indeed a global problem, we must take action at the local levels to begin making a real difference to combat climate change. I am proud to say that we are taking some serious and immediate action here in New Jersey.
Last Friday was a great day. A terrific day. It was one of those moments that, as a legislator, you dream of. It's why I got into public service in the first place. And I was so proud to stand beside Governor Corzine as he signed the Global Warming Response Act into law. The fact that this transpired mere minutes after Al Gore spoke about the historic significance of this new legislation made it that much sweeter.
In the glaring absence of a federal policy to address climate change on a national level, it is up to the states to take the lead in reducing global warming-causing emissions before it is too late. Considering New Jersey's high energy demand, the Global Warming Response Act will indeed make a significant difference on a world-wide scale.
I first introduced this legislation over a year ago, and today I am proud to say that New Jersey is establishing the strictest standards in the nation. We might have been second, after California, but our new rules are tougher. Unlike other state measures that mandate reductions by 2020, this groundbreaking legislation requires an 80% reduction of global warming emission levels by 2050. These are the limits scientists say are necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
At the presentation of the Inconvenient Truth slide show on Saturday, we got a reminder from Linda Stender to call our state senator Bob Smith, chair of the senate environment committee to encourage him to move her NJ Global Warming Response Act out of committee. The bill calls for a reduction in carbon emissions 20% by 2020. The assembly won't get to it until the assembly budget period is over, May at the earliest.
HIGHLAND PARK - Two of New Jersey's most eco-friendly officials visited the borough's senior center Saturday in support of Step It Up 2007, a nationwide day of action on global warming. They joined local residents for a slide show on climate change. "The federal government has failed us miserably," said state Assemblywoman Linda Stender, D-Union, who brought New Jersey's Global Warming Response Act to the Legislature. "States and cities are holding themselves responsible, as we should all do." Stender said she takes action in her home by limiting showers to five minutes, driving a hybrid car and taking cloth bags to the supermarket instead of using disposable plastic ones.
Borough resident Tina Weishaus presented the slide show, highlighting the science behind global warming and emphasizing a need for action. Weishaus noted that New Jersey can expect to face coastal flooding, drinking water contamination by salt water and an influx of non-native species that thrive in warmer temperatures, including pests and diseases such as West Nile virus. Weishaus also cited a report by former World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern, who said global warming could cost the world $9 trillion...
"Everything that we do in Highland Park, we do green," said Mayor Meryl Frank... Other green initiatives include planting 100 trees at Centennial Park - trees absorb carbon dioxide - and creating a "rain garden" to trap polluted rainwater and filter it through gravel and sand before it trickles into the Raritan River, the mayor said. Also, the Borough Hall is powered by solar panels.
Though as we learned it's better to plant trees closer to the equator.
After the slide show, Weishaus led participants to the sidewalk in front of Stop & Shop on Raritan Avenue, where the group held up signs demanding an 80 percent cut in carbon-dioxide emissions by 2050...
"The urgency really gets you," said Dallas Grove, an Ocean Township resident who traveled to the borough for the day of action. "Global warming has gone beyond a concept into, "What do we do today, tomorrow and this year?' "
The headlines screamed out, like manna from heaven for gas-guzzlers, McMansioners, and Bush administration "scientists" alike:
"Scientists: Global Warming Can't Be Stopped."
"Scientists Say There's No Way To Stop Climate Change."
This morning, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their widely-anticipated report on global climate change. The report (available here as PDF) found, among other things, that, "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level." The group of experts also said, with over 90 percent confidence, that human activity has been the main driver of said warming.
So what's New Jersey's largest news portal, home of the award-winning Star-Ledger, to do with such a drastic report?
If you guessed, "Misrepresent its findings," you're the big winner -- we've got a Hummer in the mail to you.
The Star-Ledger/Nj.com report, authored by Kitta MacPherson, leads by calling global warming "a runaway train that can't be stopped," before half-heartedly adding, "at least for a while." What the IPCC did in fact say was that we've fucked ourselves over for at least 30 more years of global warming as a result of our selfish actions, but, as the New York Times put it:
"The warming can be substantially blunted by prompt action."
So, it turns out there actually is a way -- many ways, actually -- to stop climate change. While my fellow City Belter Elizabeth recently took An Inconvient Truth to task for saying as much, there are personal actions that, if replicated on a grand scale (perhaps incentivized by government), can help stem the tide of global warming. But she was right to say that our ever-business-friendly federal government deserves most of the blame, and it is indeed killing us.
Rather than giving up, and encouraging everyone else to do so, perhaps Nj.com should help us understand how we can create change. Perhaps with an afternoon to put it all together, the report in tomorrow's paper will be a little less cynical -- and a little more correct.
Senators Lautenberg and Menendez were two of eleven co-sponsors of new federal legislation to combat climate change by significantly reducing polluting emissions.
The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act, first introduced last July by now-retired Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), would reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (a 15% reduction from today's levels) and to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. To achieve these emission reductions, the bill calls for a greater reliance on clean, renewable energy and improved energy efficiency.
The Senate bill is mirrored by the New Jersey Global Warming Response Act (A3301/S2114), sponsored by Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-22) and Senator Barbara Buono (D-18), requiring statewide emissions reductions are below 1990 levels by 2020 (about a 20% reduction from New Jersey's emissions levels today).
Environment New Jersey is urging all members of the state legislature to co-sponsor this legislation and is also calling on Governor Corzine to issue an Executive Order to reduce statewide emissions by 80% by 2050 and develop a plan to start cutting emissions right away.
Of several sponsors, one is Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri-Huttle, who is fulfilling her job on the Weinberg Team by advocating progressive, good citizen policies.
