Climate news this week: greening football games, the auto bailout, Southwestern wind--12/8

All across America, football is part of many Thanksgiving traditions. Last week, football fans in Detroit partook in Thanksgiving festivities and helped the environment, as the Lions’ Ford Field offset the carbon emissions to go carbon neutral for their Thanksgiving game.

"We did an energy audit with Ford Field, and we took a look at all of the lighting, the heating, the cooling, (and) the steam that they use. (We) took a look at all of their energy usage from the last Thanksgiving game, because we did offset it last Thanksgiving, and this year they wanted to do that again," said Mike Dolkowski of Carbon Credit Environmental Services.

To the fans at the game, almost all of the changes went unnoticed. As for the impact of those reductions, the effects are immeasurable.

"You won't notice anything, but they have taken huge steps into reducing their energy consumption. They can utilize waste heat energy for the boilers... (They're) putting in compact fluorescent lighting in some of the offices, (and they're using) computers so that the lights will turn on and off at certain times, so nothing is left on," said Dolkowski.

The effects of the carbon neutral effort didn't just end with the game. In fact, 5,000 fans received saplings to plant at home when they left Ford Field, which is part of a broader initiative called the "Greening of Detroit".

Unfortunately, we also learned last week that ocean acidification is increasing rapidly. A study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that ocean acidification, which occurs when oceans absorb atmospheric carbon, is happening 10 times faster than expected, and harming marine species like mussels and coral.

"It appears that we've crossed a threshold where the ocean can no longer buffer the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere," [Timothy] Wootton [lead author of the study] told IPS.

For millions of years, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean were in balance, but the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has put more CO2 into the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The oceans have absorbed one-third -- about 130 billion tonnes -- of those human emissions and have become 30 percent more acidic as the extra CO2 combines with carbonate ions in seawater, forming carbonic acid.
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The ocean's pH -- the measure of acidity or alkalinity -- has been declining, or becoming more acidic, at a rate of about 0.02 per decade since 1980, said Ulf Riebesell, a biological oceanographer at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany.

"We're just starting to realise the far-reaching impacts of ocean acidification," Riebesell told IPS, noting that the term ocean acidification was coined just four years ago.

Wootton and colleagues measured a massive pH decline of 0.4 units in just eight years off the northwest tip of Washington State in the U.S. And that abrupt increase has had a major impact on marine species in the tide pool on Tatoosh Island where the study was conducted.

"Large shell species like mussels and goose barnacles were dying at a faster rate and being replaced by other species," he said.

The major headlines this week focused largely on American automakers, which are facing collapse amidst the country’s economic crisis. The automakers have been in Washington lobbying for a government bailout plan. As USA Today reports, energy efficiency is a major issue that the industry will need to address in order to receive government funding.

Although U.S. automakers focused on more profitable SUVs and trucks at the expense of developing more cars and fuel-efficient technologies, they turned that around in recent years. But it's clear lawmakers want more.

Ford was the first automaker to offer a hybrid SUV, its Ford Escape, and has made major upgrades in power and range for its just-unveiled Fusion and Milan hybrids. GM has developed hybrid cars and trucks, as well.

 

GM and Chrysler are pouring money into developing electric plug-in vehicles, a point they highlighted to Congress.

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Financial troubles amid the auto sales collapse have led Chrysler and GM to even cut back some current hybrid programs.

Chrysler's hybrid SUVs will go out of production after just 16 weeks because it cannot afford their Delaware plant. GM delayed an advanced Saturn Vue gas-electric hybrid into next year to save money.

But [Jack] Nerad [a market analyst for Kelley Blue Book] thinks profit and loss aside, automakers must "green" their plans.

"I think the message that Congress wants to hear isn't necessarily a business case," he says. "It has to do with non-business things like environmental issues and fuel-economy issues. I think to make these plans fly, there probably has to be some of that in there."

This week we also learned about the benefits of renewable energy in the Southwest. As investment in wind energy is creating a land rush in the region, many people are organizing into local wind organizations to make sure that the benefits of wind energy reach them and their communities.

[The forming of new cooperative associations] allows them to bargain collectively for a better price and ensures that as few as possible succumb to high-pressure tactics or accept low offers. Ranchers share information about the potential value of their wind.
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The godfather of such associations is a federal official, Grant Stumbough, whose work for the Resource Conservation and Development office of the Agriculture Department was focused on ways to keep ranchers on the land. Revenue from wind farms, he believed, could mean the difference between success and failure for some ranchers.

Mr. Stumbough felt the ranchers were at a disadvantage when dealing individually with wind developers. The developers, in most cases, know more than landowners about the value of the wind and the transmission lines that will carry it.

For instance, the deal that Mr. Ahlstrand offered Elsie Bacon was valued, yard for yard, at as little as a quarter of the amount that the largest local electrical cooperative had paid for a large transmission right of way. And it included a nondisclosure clause to prevent her from comparing notes with neighbors.

Mr. Stumbough said: “I thought we could use collective bargaining strategies to maybe have a little more leverage in negotiating with wind developers. If we could all get together and work together cooperatively and do some cost sharing and maybe share some of the profits, I think it’s going to be a benefit to everybody.”

That’s it for this week’s news roundup! Feel free to share other stories in the comments section!