Subscribe to RSSJanuary Coastal Scuttlebutt – old
January 11
Forwarded by Jim Chambers, LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources
Anyone who supports Governor Jindal’s opposition to EPA’s regulation of industrial carbon dioxide emissions should read this AP story about New Orleans native Lisa Jackson who heads the agency. This story was carried yesterday in the Times-Picayune and it portrays Ms. Jackson as the first administrator of EPA who personally understands the vulnerability of the gulf coast to sea level rise and extreme weather events from climate change.
January 10
Today I’m using this space as a soapbox to discuss my feelings about LaCoastPost critics. With the exception of outright spam, most of which is screened out before it can be read, I welcome the thoughts of anyone who either agrees or disagrees with the style or content of the words and pictures published here.
Some expressions seem particularly hypercritical and unnecessarily personal but occasionally they’re creative. I enjoyed being called a charlatan, for example! After all I’ve been purveying coastal snake oil for many years.
For readers who don’t know the term ‘blog troll’ I’ve been warned by friends that some of my critics clearly fall into that category – apparently bored anonymous folks who find pleasure in provoking endless argument for its own sake rather than from interest in honest dialogue.
Here’s an apt definition for blog troll from the Urban Dictionary:
2.(n) -A depraved individual who sits in front of a computer all day and posts flames of an idiotic or pseudo-intellectual nature on public forums and private websites. Many of these people actually become emotional about what is said on the afore-said mediums and feel it is their duty to punish those who disagree with them. They too may pursue this object in an obsessive-compulsive manner.
January 9
I still wonder who designs coastal logos and whether they’re vetted by people sensitive to the importance of image. Am I the only one who thinks that this is an important issue?
January 8
Crabmeat carbon footprint: During my recent 21 hour visit to the environs of Baltimore, my home town, I feasted twice on my all time favorite food, Maryland crab cakes. The first time the experience ranked 5 stars and the second time about 4. During the second I asked about the source of the crabmeat, assuming that it was Louisiana (Chesapeake crabs are scarce even in season, and buried in the mud during winter). I shouldn’t hve been surprised to hear that the crabmeat was imported all the way from Venezuela. Got me thinking about the health of Louisiana crab production and the carbon footprint of blue crabs, as well as my own.
January 7
The Minerals Management Service (MMS) has approved a grant for $1,237,608 to the Plaquemines Parish Government in Louisiana through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP). The money will be used for the first phase of a planned wetland repair and restoration project along Fringe Marsh, in the vicinity of the Plaquemines Levee in Plaquemines Parish, located approximately 50 miles southeast of New Orleans.
Grant funding for the first phase will include planning, engineering and design, and permitting for the project. The project’s goal is to identify eight sites and borrow areas for the eventual restoration of approximately 300 acres of wetland area along the Fringe Marsh, a tidal shoreline stabilization and buffer system at the base of the Plaquemines Levee on the seaward side.
“MMS is committed to assisting Louisiana in its vital coastal restoration efforts through the CIAP program,” said MMS Director Liz Birnbaum. “We are proud to partner with Plaquemines Parish in supporting important multi-phase conservation initiatives like the Fringe Marsh Repair Planning project.”
The CIAP was created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Through the program, MMS will provide $250 million in grants annually, from 2007-2010, to six eligible Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas producing states – Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, California, Mississippi, and Texas. The funding to Louisiana included $127.5 million for each of the fiscal years 2007 and 2008 and $120.9 million for 2009 and 2010. Nineteen Coastal Political Subdivisions (parishes) share in the funding of projects outlined in the state’s approved plan.
January 6
Today I flew from New Orleans up to my home town of Baltimore for a checkup at Johns Hopkins with a doctor who examines me every six months. The second leg of the flight took me up the East Coast from Orlando with good views of coastal marsh, which got me thinking about the impact of this extended cold snap on black mangroves that have been gradually moving north in the salt mashes of south Louisiana. I’d like to hear from marsh ecologists what their expectations are with respect to an important marsh plant that has been climate limited to about 29 degrees north latitude..
January 5
The news today, including this AP story in the Times-Picayune, is dominated by record cold and snow across the eastern US, setting quarter century records and causing serious suffering throughout the south, including in Louisiana. Weather is very difficult to predict more than a week in advance.
Much easier to predict is the flurry of hoots of derision by climate change deniers that has already begun. Those who will shamelessly use this record cold (and an even more extreme snow fall event in parts of China and Korea) to cast public doubt on global warming will purposely concentrate only on temperature and ignore the fact that climate scientists have been warning about anthropogenic climate change, extreme weather events all over the world as a result of atmospheric CO2 buildup, not just global warming. Sigh.
January 4
An article by Jen DeGregorio in the Times-Picayune effectively captures an exquisite dilemma facing the National Audubon Society – and by extension the state’s coastal program.
Audubon owns an important piece of Louisiana’s coastal ecosystem in the form of the Paul J. Rainey Sanctuary, in Vermilion Parish, property of great environmental importance, that was seriously damaged by a combination of former oil and gas canal development and hurricane impacts.
Attempting to repair damage and offset further erosion and marsh dieback would cost more than Audubon can afford. The only realistic source of funding is to once more allow energy production that was banned in 2001, but at deeper levels and using less damaging techniques.
Prominent in the discussion is my long friend and colleague G. Paul Kemp, a well known coastal geologist, who has become the chief scientist for Audubon in Louisiana. Paul is well aware of the irony of the decision and the state and national scrutiny that the debate will attract.
January 3
As of 7:00 AM an article on levees by Mark Schleifstein published in the 1/2 Times-Picayune had generated 46 comments, a pretty good indicator of the high ‘provocativity index’ of the subject. The article apparently describes a study of the cost/value of levee systems from which a surprisingly high 55% of the American population could be assumed to gain some degree of flood protection. The study, by Ezra Boyd, a geography graduate student at LSU, was commissioned by levees.org, the well known grass roots organization founded in New Orleans by Sandy Rosenthal, after Hurricane Katrina. I’m intrigued and may post more on this soon.
The Sunday Advocate carried this Fred Mulhearn cartoon depicting LSU administrators jettisoning Professor Ivor van Heerden, former LSU Hurricane Center co-director after he blew the whistle on the Corps of Engineers’ disingenuous explanation of Katrina flooding in New Orleans.
Ivor aweigh!
Michelle Milhollon, in an article in the Advocate, describes the performance of 38 year old Bobby Jindal halfway through his first term as Louisiana governor. I’m intrigued that of all the challenges facing the state neither the governor nor any of the folks interviewed touched on his performance with respect to our greatest challenge – the disappearing coast.
Gov. Jindal (photo by Arthur D. Lauck/The Advocate)
An article on the national reaction to Gov. Jindal’s opposition to EPA regulation of CO2 was published on 12/30 in Climate Progress. This was kindly forwarded by Don Boesch.
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, had already alienated many of his progressive customers by opposing Obamacare a few weeks ago. Now, according to an article by Waylon Lewis in the New Yorker, he’s dissing the science of climate change! To me this is an all too familiar example of an expert in a business field pontificating on a science issue without doing sufficient homework. Imagine Steven Chu, Nobel laureate and head of the Department of Energy weighing in on marketing groceries.
January 2
I’m not a social scientist but lately I’ve become impressed by insights to be gained by those who combine data on geographical metrics with social or socioeconomic information, including population density. Local examples include Rich Campanella at Tulane and Shirley Laska at UNO. We too often overlook these insights in planning for coastal protection and restoration. I hope to post on this subject soon, or maybe to recruit a guest poster. With this very broad interdisciplinary subject in mind I highly recommend a striking new piece in Slate.com that provides a dramatic animated national map of county by county job gains and losses during the past two years. Wow.
Coastal counterculture: While I was a grad student in Georgia during the sixties and seventies an underground newspaper was published in Atlanta known as the Great Speckled Bird that was considered subversive by the establishment. While researching a post for 1/3 I discovered in Wikipedia that, at least through 2007, The Bird has resumed publication on the web. A typical irreverent quote from The Bird: “These are our opinions and we are entitled to them, they are not written anywhere else. So, don’t expect us to tell both sides of the story. The big newspapers, magazines, TV and radio do that all day long. Here you will hear our side of things.” Not a bad slogan that I may paraphrase in the future for LaCoastPost.
The National Audubon Society is overseeing its 110th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) all over the country between December 14 and Jan 5. Louisiana has become one of the most important and popular areas for this effort that is carried out mostly by volunteer citizen scientists.
The data generated each year by this census has become a critical “canary in the coal mine” for picking up changes in population size of resident and migratory species – and an important indicator of subtle climate change effects. You can still get involved. Click on the link.
25 Comments
2010-01-26
21:32:32
Echoes of Len's MLK Day mini-post on EJ:
Senior EPA Officials to Attend National Environmental Justice Advisory Council Meeting in New Orleans
WASHINGTON - The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency independent advisory group, will hold a public meeting in New Orleans Jan. 27-29 to discuss environmental justice issues. EPA Assistant Administrators Cynthia Giles and Mathy Stanislaus, along with other senior officials, will take part in an opening dialogue with NEJAC on Jan. 27.
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has made promoting environmental justice and expanding the conversation of environmentalism one of the seven key priorities of her tenure at the Agency. Since taking office, she has appointed a Senior Advisor for Environmental Justice and a Senior Counsel for External Civil Rights in order to focus the agency’s efforts to address the health and environmental burdens faced by communities disproportionately impacted by pollution. Most recently, and consistent with this commitment, the agency announced that it would assess the impacts of its hazardous waste rule on disadvantaged communities. This action will also be used to inform EPA’s ongoing effort to strengthen the consideration of environmental justice in rulemakings.
WHO:
Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
Senior EPA officials
WHAT:
Public meeting on environmental justice
WHERE:
New Orleans Marriott Hotel, 555 Canal Street, 504-581-1000
WHEN:
Jan.27, 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. CST
Jan. 28, 8:45 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. CST
Jan. 29, 8:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. CST
2010-01-26
14:55:32
Like total rats!!! Couldn't get the Hydrologic Cycle to start... thinks the plugs might be saturated.....
Anywayz, I'd say REJOICE in the global seas a rising..... more sea water surface area means more area to evaporate water from which means of course more water fer them glaciers.....
I see nuttin wrong wid a sayin that ribbers add water to the oceans and that evaporation subracts water frum the oceans..... that iz a what is happin iz it not???? In a nutshell; wid no four foot long equations scribbled on the blackboard?????
Well, hopefully the Hydrologic Cycle will start now...... due to evaporation......
2010-01-26
13:32:42
Thanks Walt; especially for the 'actual global warming denier part.'
Well, gotta go and start up the Hydrologic Cycle and roar down the freeway.......
Like you said, things are 'cyclic' so maybe that is what its all about......
2010-01-25
21:43:35
HeidiHoe
You seem incapable of grasping some rather straightforward concepts. Here's the beef sportsfan:
1) The hydrologic cycle is a cycle, not a one-way path as you implied when you said "Water is 'added' to the ocean; but water is also 'subtracted' by evaporation also; continuous process called the 'hydrologic cycle.'" The point you are missing is that more water is being added to the ocean faster than is evaporated and returned by rain in the hydrologic cycle. That's the reason for concern.
2) You also miss the point on the present condition of the Earth's glaciers. All glaciers are melting faster than they are being replenished by snowfall. That's the reason for concern.
3) If you can't understand that at some point under a given set of conditions the atmospheric segment of the hydrologic cycle can become saturated, then all you are engaging in here with your comments to this blog is contrarian gibberish and wasting peoples time. You can't even be considered an actual global warming denier.
2010-01-25
14:56:58
So ride AMTRAK next time...... there appears to be the capability to get from New Orleans to Baltimore on AMTRAK.... no forcin here......
The issue was whinin one day about extractin erl from the swamps and then the next day gittin on an aeroplane which uzez up that thar erl extracted from duh earth.... like DUH....
I do think I mentioned the 'hydrologic cycle....'
As you say, the glaciers melt, the water runs to the ocean, it evaporates, eventually returns to the glaciers through precipitation on them....
No argument here.... so what's yer beef, sport????
The 'hydrologic cycle becomes saturated.....' now THAT is an interesting concept.....
2010-01-23
23:09:58
HeidiHoe
When water is evaporated from the ocean, what do you think happens to it? It falls back to Earth as rain either on land running off in rivers back to the ocean or falls directly from clouds back into the ocean. Water vapor only has an average residence time in the atmosphere of nine days. The hydrologic cycle is cyclical, not one-way to some never-never land. At some point the hydrologic cycle becomes saturated i.e. has all the water that it can move and then any additional water from melted ice on land adds to the overall volume of the world ocean.
Yes, air travel was forced on the public as the long-distance transport system of the U.S.. You need to read up on how government policies put the railroads out of the passenger carrying business and nearly completely out of business totally. Before WW II railroads competed with each other for passengers. Airports and highways were built and maintained at government expense, but the railroads have to maintain their tracks and pay taxes on the land on which the tracks are built. Many politicians felt it was payback time for the railroad robber-baron era of the 19th century and besides they liked being able to fly back from Washington quickly. They dismantled the railroad capacity as an alternate long-distance travel system and only very, very reluctantly created AmTrak and then only on a very limited basis, thus constraining its usefulness. So yes, air travel has been forced on the public for long-distance travel.
2010-01-23
09:10:24
Water is 'added' to the ocean; but water is also 'subtracted' by evaporation also; continuous process called the 'hydrologic cycle.'
If one uses 'oil' to get around; then I believe they shouldn't groan too loudly about oil 'extraction.' Its gotta come from somewhere.
If that extraction is a real problem, make it a priority not to use the resource extracted.....
'Forced' on the public??? Sure right.......
2010-01-22
23:09:42
HeidiHoe
Just because observations were made 90 years ago that could also be made today doesn't make them invalid, and particularly as you put it "disappearing this, declining that, never seen it this warm before, etc." do make sense when put in their proper context. In the 1922 article, Capt. Martin Ingebrigtsen claims to have sailed the eastern Arctic "for 54 years past" and that the region was not recognizable as the same region of 1868 to 1917. You have absolutely no evidence to dispute this claim, do you?
The rate of sea level rise that occurred during the 20th century has been determined from tide gauge records since 1768, to have begun in the later half of the 19th century (Woodworth 1999, Geophysical Research Letters V.26(11)1580-1592.). Sea level rise can only be caused by adding water to the ocean by melting land ice and by thermal expansion increasing the water volume. Both methods require heat energy, period, no ifs ands or buts. Therefore Capt. Ingebrigsten's observations fit well within the historical geophysical context of existing evidence on global warming and sea level rise.
Secondly to chastise somebody who is forced to use a transportation system that has in turn been forced on the public of the U.S. by the government, politicians and lobbyists is disingenuous to say the least whether or not they have criticized oil extraction.
2010-01-21
10:06:10
One reason to 'rant' is shown in one of the articles Len has linked to above, about the 'New Data.'
Uses words like 'significantly hotter.'
So check out the article please; one will see temperature comps taken out to the 'hundreth place' which to me seems quite meaningless when talking air temperatures.
Can anyone here really tell the difference in air temperature out to the tenth or hundreth????
Are these differences 'really significant?'
Good math and lab exercise I'm sure but in the atmosphere I'm not so sure about that....
But its OK to label others who disagree as 'deniers....'
2010-01-21
08:53:31
Len,
I feel an urge to come to your defense in response to the ranting found in this post but the issue here has nothing to do with the coast. Unfortunately, it has to do with a growing recognition that the power to rant has the ability to undermine constructive criticism and discussion. It is indeed alarming when rant trumps data and reasonable disagreement.
2010-01-21
12:15:37
Thanks, Ed.
I'm working on a formulation for 'rant repellent' but it's still gratifying to hear rational comments that don't repeat arguments that have been refuted.
2010-01-19
10:11:06
My point is that the article, written about 90 years ago, is making observations back then that could have just as easily been made today (disappearing this, declining that, never seen it this warm before, etc)
Naive- So it jumping on bandwagons that just might be running in endless circles; based on perhaps questionable data comparisons.
So is whining about oil extraction one day and jumping on airplanes the next day for another extended trip somewhere.
2010-01-18
22:35:21
HeidiHoe,
Before the olde Irish eyes glaze over and song bursts out, what is your point with the 1922 article?
The article confirms my point about the problems of confusing local weather extremes with global climate conditions. Spitzbergen's weather is influenced by the Gulf Stream, which by the way is notoriously variable. I assume you have heard of the Gulf Stream? Here's a quote from a Spitzbergen travel site :
http://www.discover-the-world.co.uk/en/destinations/spitsbergen/
"Fortunately, with the influence of the Gulf Stream keeping the west coast ice free during the summer months, even this far north shipping operates regularly, including that of the tourist variety."
To reiterate, to conflate and/or confuse local short term weather extremes with global climate conditions is naive.
2010-01-17
14:33:09
Wow, like totally awesome. Fast moving currents of air. Who whuddah thunk it???
I like to ponder the article found here myself, dated 1922:
http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/050/mwr-050-11-0589a.pdf
Or maybe this one:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/03/16/you-ask-i-provide-november-2nd-1922-arctic-ocean-getting-warm-seals-vanish-and-icebergs-melt/
I get high on celestial shots o' Irish down at McFeelys pub myself......
Makes the olde Irish Eyes just start to glaze over and songs come to ones lips......
2010-01-17
10:13:51
Yes, Heidi, there are jet streams. B-29 navigators discovered them in 1944. Celestial shots showed 150 knot ground speeds with 350 knot true airpseeds. Nobody could believe a 200 knot headwind was possible, but then no one had previously spent a lot of flying time at 30,000 feet.
Get high enough and the effect goes away.
2010-01-17
08:50:28
Jet Streams??? There are Jet Streams???
Was it caused by all the fellers flockin to Copenhagen on all those jets in December????
Better ban Jet travel altogether......
2010-01-16
22:46:21
Apparently HH doesn't understand about the existence of the Jet Stream. When the Jet Stream makes a loop toward the south and freezes Florida (as it has done historically) it usually makes a corresponding loop northwards and brings unseasonably warm air up north somewhere.
To conflate short term local weather extremes with global climatic conditions is naive.
2010-01-09
19:53:08
HH's comments display a level of ignorance common among right-wing deniers of global warming. They assume that there's some significance to whether the terms global warming or climate change are used. They're interchangeable in the sense that the overall trend underway, driven by societal emissions, is one of significant warming, but that doesn't mean it will be warmer everywhere all the time. Extreme weather events - such as bitter cold spells - are also part of the picture. This has been described in the scientific literature for well over a decade, but some people can't be bothered to look at that.
The vile ad hominem attack with a concurrent ignorance of medical realities for those needing specialists, displays a depressing lack of character as well.
2010-01-07
06:32:21
You are fortunate to have the means to be able to travel such lengths for medical work. The commoners have to make do with what is available a little closer to home in NOLA and vicinity.
It is just interesting to one day read on this site about all the ails of Carbon extraction and pollution and the next day to read about more long distance travels being made using Carbon.
If Carbon was REALLY a major concern/issue for you I'm sure you'd quickly find a doctor closer to home and make do with that option; in the interest of minimizing carbon extraction and pollution......
It used to be 'warming' but also interesting how that has become 'change' to fit the reality..... Joe Friday was right again, about the 'name being changed....'
2010-01-09
13:29:30
Len,
You need one of those "Inappropriate comment? Alert us" buttons on your blog like the Times-Picayune site has. HH has gone from the usual just-plain-silly to mean-spirited and offensive by posting this comment one hour after you explained why you traveled to Baltimore.
Here's to your long life, buddy.
Don
2010-01-06
21:20:00
The Florida weather has gotta be Global Warming...... Its just gotta......
Reminds one of 1977...... Cypress Gardens didn't look all that hot in the spring of that year.....
I'm wondering how much carbon is added by flying to Baltimore fer a checkup...... could be no doubt done in Louisiana just as well..... save a few gallons of jet fuel and a few pounds of Carbon combustion products as well.....
2010-01-07
05:33:09
HH-
Your comments are oh so predictable but I'm still surprised that you would stoop to using this extreme weather event to try to debunk global warming. As the item above notes, it's not just warming it's about rapid change. It's fairly cold here in Baltimore but as my cousin and I were discussing last night when we were kids folks in Baltimore commonly ice skated on ponds and reservoirs around the city during the winter. No one can do that anymore. As for my carbon footprint from flying up here I had no choice because the American bias against mass transit has blocked an efficient high speed rail system that would have been my choice. As for my choice of doctors, if you must know, I suffer from a rare life threatening autoimmune disease for which my doctor in Louisiana sends me every six months to one of the few world experts at Hopkins.
2010-01-05
16:13:05
"I’m intrigued that of all the challenges facing the state neither the governor nor any of the folks interviewed touched on his performance with respect to our greatest challenge – the disappearing coast."
Read the Advocate article just now. Strange that not even Carville mentioned the coast, or New Orleans, or levees. Almost the whole story was about budget woes.
One possible explanation: Education will be head-to-head with the coast very soon but all these people have already decided to go with K-12, LSU, U of L, and UNO rather than the coast.
No inside knowledge, just a hunch. Other theories, anyone?
2010-01-03
06:40:54
Len,
no doubt you are probably already at work on it, but I am hoping that you will check (and wade?) into this article from yesterday's front page Times-Picayune:
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2010/01/levee_statistics_point_up_thei.html
Thanks in advance.
2010-01-03
08:09:40
Editilla-
Yes I mentioned it and linked to it above and hope to write more soon.