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Thursday, 21 February 2013 18:00 |
EPA – February 2013
President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance in October 2009, setting aggressive targets for reducing waste and pollution in federal operations by 2020, and requiring federal agencies to assemble Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans. In 2013, Agency Sustainability Plans for the first time include Climate Change Adaptation Plans, outlining initiatives to reduce the vulnerability of federal programs, assets, and investments to the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise or more frequent or severe extreme weather. EPA recently released its Draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan for public comment. In this plan, EPA examines the ways its programs are vulnerable to a changing climate and how the Agency can adapt in order to continue to meet its mission of protecting human health and the environment. Every program and regional office within the EPA is currently developing an Implementation Plan, outlining how each considers the impacts of climate change in its mission, operations, and programs. The public may provide comment on the draft document through the Agency's docket system. The docket number is EPA-HQ-OA-2012-0247. To access the draft plan, click here.
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 00:00 |
USDA
The recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports, entitled "Climate Change and Agriculture: Effects and Adaptation and the Effects of Climate Variability" and "Change on Forest Ecosystems: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis for the U.S. Forest Sector," were created as inputs to the National Climate Assessment. Scientists from the federal service, universities, non-governmental organizations, industry, tribal lands and the private sector contributed to the peer-reviewed studies. The reports discuss how climate change is affecting U.S. farms, forests, grasslands, and rural communities. While U.S. agriculture and resource management have long histories of successful adaptation to climate variability, the accelerating pace and intensity of climate change presents new challenges to be addressed, as highlighted in the reports. The reports evaluate current conditions and look ahead to the next 25 to 100 years and the potential consequences of climate change. To access these reports, click here.
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 00:00 |
United States Global Change Research Program – February 2013
The United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), in cooperation with the Department of State, requests expert review of the Second Order Draft of the 2013 Supplement to the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands (the 'Wetlands Supplement'). The Wetlands Supplement provides methods for estimating anthropogenic emissions and removals of greenhouse gases from wetlands. Specifically, the guidance in the Wetlands Supplement covers inland peat lands and other wetlands on mineral soils; coastal wetlands including mangroves, coastal marshes and sea grass; as well as constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment. It does not include methodologies for flooded lands. This document supplements the guidance contained in the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, which provides methodologies for estimating national anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol. Experts may register and access the Wetlands Supplement to contribute to the review here. Comments must be received by March 22, 2013. To access the Wetlands Supplement table of contents, click here.
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Friday, 15 February 2013 00:00 |
By Ian Volner– Metropolis Mag – February 7, 2013
Soft” is hardly the word most people would associate with the contemporary urban waterfront. In the twenty-first century, we know the strip where city meets sea as a cluttered hardscape, an area typically girded by either highways and piers or luxury condominiums and busy recreational facilities. But soft is exactly what the landscape architect Susannah Drake says our waterfronts will have to become in the future—a future a lot more complex (and a lot wetter) than anything we’ve known before. Drake, principal of Brooklyn-based practice dlandstudio, has developed five case studies for this month’s issue of Metropolis, each one positing a new and innovative coping mechanism to confront changed urban prospects in the wake of climate change, rising sea levels, and extreme storms. For full story, click here. |
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 17:13 |
By Peter Gleick – Significant Figures – Science Blogs – February 20, 2013One of the reasons that climate change is such a big issue is because the global climate is an integral part of the Earth’s entire ecosystem, tied to so many of the big and little things that society cares about. Figuring out how all these complicated pieces tie together is hard, as is linking these pieces together in the minds of the public so that we – and our policy makers – can grasp the true implications of a changing climate and plan for them. Because this is so important, I expect that many of my future posts here will address this issue, but let me start with one example: the relationships between climate, snow, ice, and water resources. Some of my earliest research on climate and water (my doctorate in 1986 evaluated the regional hydrologic impacts of climate change) showed that one of the most critical impacts of climate change would be changes in the snow/rain dynamics in mountains. Since then, more and better research has confirmed and strengthened our understanding of how vulnerable water systems – and especially mountain regions – are to climate changes. Indeed, we already see impacts in the form of disappearing tropical and high-latitude glaciers and ice caps, changing rainfall patterns, and increased water content in the atmosphere, not to mention the growing influence of climate change on the frequency and intensity of some extreme events. For full blog post, click here. |
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 00:00 |
U.S. Government Accountability Office – February 2013 The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a biennial update that describes the status of high-risk areas previously listed in 2011 and identifies any new high-risk area in needing of attention from Congress and the Executive Branch to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse. Solutions to high-risk problems offer the potential to save billions of dollars, improve service to the public, and strengthen the performance and accountability of the U.S. government. This report includes a section on "Limiting the Federal Government's Fiscal Exposure by Better Managing Climate Change Risks." The report notes that: "Climate change is a complex, crosscutting issue that poses risks to many environmental and economic systems - including agriculture, infrastructure, ecosystems, and human health - and presents a significant financial risk to the federal government. Among other impacts, climate change could threaten coastal areas with rising sea levels, alter agricultural productivity, and increase the intensity and frequency of severe weather events." To access the full report, click here. To read a synopsis of the chapter's findings and key reports, click here. |
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Thursday, 21 February 2013 00:00 |
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The clean water paradigm in the United States is changing. The Water Resources Utility of the Future will transform the way traditional wastewater utilities view themselves and manage their operations. They also will transform their relationships with their communities and their contributions to local economies. This report presents the clean water industry's vision for the future as well as a series of actions that will help deliver our vision. It is jointly released by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF). The audience for this report includes federal policy-makers, local utility managers, private sector interests, and state and local governments. To access the report, click here.
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Thursday, 14 February 2013 17:06 |
By Beth Cefalu – Upper Michigan Source – February 14, 2013 (Video)
Members of the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) say "global climate change is a reality" and it's affecting the Great Lakes. Environmentalists at a public forum in Marquette Wednesday developed a plan they believe will help the Upper Peninsula adapt to the changes. The meeting centered on record-breaking water temperatures last summer on Lake Superior. Superior Watershed Partnership's Executive Director, Carl Lindquist, explains scientific data collected over the past 40 years reveal the lake suffered a "70 percent loss" in ice cover, and that climate change is responsible. For full story, click here.
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