EPA Regional Administrator Curt Spalding Discusses Sustainability at UConn

Curt Spalding, Regional Administrator for the EPA in the New England region, gave a guest lecture today in the UConn School of Engineering. During his talk, entitled A Sustainable Future, Mr. Spalding touched upon a variety of projects that the EPA is currently working on including zero-emission water treatment facilities and green chemistry. The portion that I found most interesting, however, was a discussion of a Boston-based project that saw the EPA, HUD and DOT work together with local government to create transit oriented developments for communities that have been under served by commuter rail. This holistic approach breaks the "silo" mentality for government planning and could be a good sign of future things to come. For more check out the video below!

What Countries are Prepared for Climate Change?

The Global Adaptation Institute's Global Adaptation Index (GaIn) "summarizes a country's Vulnerability to climate change and other global challenges on the one hand and its Readiness to improve resilience on the other hand". How prepared is your country for climate change? According to the Global Adaptation Institute, if your country is one that is going to be profoundly affected by a changing climate, then odds are it is not prepared. According to this matrix, the countries who are most vulnerable are the least ready to adapt.

European countries are concentrated at the top of the rankings of the GaIn index in addition to Australia (#4), New Zealand (#5) and the United States (#8). The Global Adaptation Institute used a variety of literature to create this index. For more follow this link!

Climate Week NYC 2011 Underway

Climate NYC 2011, a week long conference on climate change that includes NGO's, business and government leaders, began yesterday. The goal of this conference is to focus on driving a 'clean industrial revolution'. Many of the events are open to the public, so if you are in the area check them out!

24 Hours of Reality Underway

On Tuesday, former Vice President Al Gore appeared on the Colbert Report to promote the Climate Reality Project's 24 Hours of Reality. In an attempt to raise climate awareness, during this 24 hour period (yesterday to today), the Climate Reality Project will be showcasing speakers in each time zone around the world at 7 pm (in each respective timezone). Click here to view the map of presenters! At 7 pm in our timezone, here in Connecticut, Vice President Gore will be presenting from New York City.

La Niña and the Droughts

Towards the end of August, speculation began that La Niña was at work again causing extended droughts in both the Southwest US and East Africa. Last week, the verdict came in from NOAA: La Niña is back.

“'This means drought is likely to continue in the drought-stricken states of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico,' said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center. 'La Niña also often brings colder winters to the Pacific Northwest and the northern Plains, and warmer temperatures to the southern states.'"


This Voice of America article explains the consequences in regard to East Africa.

"Wassila Thiaw studies Africa for the Climate Prediction Center at the National Weather Service in the United States. With a La Niña, Mr. Thiaw says the easterly winds that are supposed to bring moisture into East Africa are reduced." 
"Starting late last year, rains that were supposed to fall over Somalia, southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya failed. That part of the Horn of Africa has a second rainy season from March through May. Mr. Thiaw says that one failed, too, but for different reasons."

Consequently, it seems that the conditions in areas being affected by extended drought, like the Southwest US and East Africa, will not improve in the near future. 

La Niña is only one phase of a climate pattern known as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The video below, from the NOAA Environmental Visualizations Labratory, shows 22 years of sea surface temperature. The ENSO pattern can be notably seen on the west coast of South America near Peru.

Google Releases Carbon Footprint

Internet giant Google has disclosed its carbon footprint. Google's total emissions in 2010 were just under 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide. As a reference point, this is higher than the entire country of Laos and is similar to the United Nation's operational carbon footprint. On a brighter note, Google asserts that their data centers use half the energy as their industrial counterparts. In addition, cloud computing, which is what Gmail uses, greatly improves energy efficiency (when compared to services that must have dedicated servers). Other interesting numbers are: each Google search accounts for about 0.2g of carbon dioxide emitted while ten minutes of YouTube viewing equates to 1g of carbon dioxide emitted. For more information, visit Google Green.

Hellish Conditions Persist

As of yesterday, Texas wildfires had consumed more than 700 homes and killed at least 4 people. Enabled by extended drought conditions, these fires are big enough to be seen in space.

Astronaut Ron Garan tweeted this picture of the Texas wildfires from the International Space Station.

Since December, wildfires have consumed an area of land that is approximately the size of Connecticut; the lack of containment of the blazes is being called unprecedented. And, while large amounts of rain is being dumped further east, Texas is not receiving the water it so desperately needs (see below).

Most of Texas needs over a foot of rain to end drought conditions.

In 2011, about 6 million acres have been burned nationally; over 3 million have been in Texas. And, unfortunately, there is no end in sight to these conditions.

Drought conditions are expected to persist in the southwest US throughout the Fall.

Framed in the proper context, these fires can be seen as one piece of evidence of climate change. Evidence is accumulating that a changing climate is already causing extreme weather events. Moving forward in the 21st century, Texas is located in an area of the world that is projected to become more dry (see map above), which means these hellish conditions (see video below) could be a preview of a more extreme future.

Tropical Storm Threatens Gulf Coast

A tropical depression has formed in the Gulf Coast. Tropical Depression Thirteen is projected to make landfall in Louisiana, as a Tropical Storm, late Sunday/early Monday morning.

Irene's Precipitation Distribution

Irene's rainfall resulted in devastating flooding for communities in multiple states in the northeast (and much of the rest of the east coast). The flooding experienced not only destroyed properties but took lives. See the distribution of precipitation in the image above from the National Weather Service.

The Second Hurricane of 2011

Hurricane Katia, and its projected path, as of Thursday morning.

With many communities still coping with the destruction caused by Irene, a the second hurricane of the 2011 season has formed in the Atlantic. Hurricane Katia is chugging along, east of Puerto Rico, and is expected to strengthen to a major hurricane by Sunday morning.