Weekly Round-Up 8/13/10: Russia reeling under climate change

Environmental and climate groups (1Sky included) are gearing up to push for climate action during the congressional recess, even if it means showing up at the office doors of senators who have failed to respond to climate change. Also, advocates will put the pressure on lawmakers to defend the EPA's efforts under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases. Climate advocates are currently battling Senator Jay Rockefeller and his "Dirty Air Act pt2" which will cripple the EPA's ability to regulate pollution for two years. 1Sky is mentioned in the New York Times for our shadowing events.

Russia Feels the Effects of Global Warming

Russia is feeling the burn this summer with temperatures topping 100° Fahrenheit for the first time. When I think about Russia, I think about blizzards and Russian snow hats. However, Russians are actually undergoing such an extreme heat wave that even President Dmitry Medvedev is convinced of climate change. His epiphany was spurred by an extreme heat wave which is blazing into its second month, a drought that has ruined a third of Russia's crops and wildfires that have blanketed half of European Russia. The Prime Minister has even banned grain exports from August 15 to December 31. Even more, numbers of deaths per day in Moscow has doubled to 700 due to this heat wave. I would say that Russians are now pretty convinced. The 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that Russia could experience a doubling of disastrous droughts, see catastrophic fires and suffer large crop loss in this century. I would say they were pretty accurate in 2007.

Our country has not experienced such a heat wave in the last 50 or even 100 years... Everyone is talking about climate change now... Unfortunately, what is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past. This means that we need to change the way we work, change the methods that we used in the past." -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

His translated speech can be found here.

Of course, Russia is not the only nation feeling the effects of climate change. Pakistan has just experienced its worst flood in 80 years which has killed more than 1,600 people and has left another millions of people homeless. The monsoon rain poured out 12 inches of rain in only a 36-hour period. The Pakistani government is calling this the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. Also, China has experienced record numbers in rainfall with floods and landslides killing at least 1,117 people with 600 left missing. What gives? While no one weather event can be directly traced to climate change, everyone knows that extreme weather is a sign of global warming. Right? These extreme floods and rainfalls can be explained simply by warm air holds more moisture than cold air. So as the climate warms, more moisture is suspended in the air then eventually falls on your house. And obviously, its pretty hot. The IPCC predicted this too. Maybe our elected leaders should start listening to this panel.

How about that new ice island? A large chunk of ice calved off the Peterman Glacier in Greenland larger than all of Manhattan at 100 squared-miles. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts (D-MA) made what I thought to be a hilarious comment about this ice island.

An iceberg four times the size of Manhattan has broken off Greenland, creating plenty of room for global warming deniers to start their own country.”

Oil Spill Update

I'm still ecstatic at the fact that there is no more oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. However, three months with 2.3 million gallons of oil per day later still resonate, causing me to evil eye BP for life. Not to mention the fact that the area's businesses will be financially hurt for at least the next three years. But let's try to remain positive! Government scientist and BP's engineers are performing pressure tests to ensure the oil well is successfully and positively sealed. They have even said that the anticipated "bottom kill" to be put in place may not be necessary anymore since the "static kill" procedure was so successful. However, the permanent plug has been put on hold due to tropical storms ahead.

BP clearly has a complete disregard for their employee's safety. They are being fined again for safety violations but this time, for their oil refinery explosion in Texas City that killed 15 workers in 2005. BP was hit with a record fine of $50.6 million -- the highest penalty amount in the history of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Not only that, but BP will invest another $500 million in upgrades to safety conditions in the Texas City oil refinery from now until 2016. The explosion occurred due to an overfill of highly flammable liquid hydrocarbon combined with broken alarms and gauges. It's sad that something so simply and completely avoidable cost 15 people their lives.

"The size of the penalty rightly reflects BP's disregard for workplace safety and shows that we will enforce the law so workers can return home safe at the end of their day," Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis said.