Climate Change
wilderness issues lecture series
Considering the Ethics of Climate Change Solutions“Almost all of the solutions to climate change have potential drawbacks,” said Donald Brown via live videoconference at the University of Montana Tuesday night.
Brown, speaking as part of the ongoing Wilderness Issues Lecture Series, urged his audience to consider the ethical implications posed by climate change solutions.
Among these drawbacks are the possibility of future CO2 leaks from poorly planned carbon sequestration projects, deforestation and rising food prices driven by biofuel production, and bird migrations being disrupted by wind power farms.
Brown, an associate professor of environmental ethics and program director for Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change at Penn State University, acknowledged that these concerns are important, but insisted that it would be unethical for them to limit action if the technology could lessen the environmental degradation and human suffering associated with climate change.
[more]
the treasure state's new energy trove
Montana’s ‘Windustry’ Poised to Grow
Montana is beginning to ramp up its efforts to capitalize on the energy potential carried in winds rolling off the Rockies and whipping east across its plains.
But it's been slow in coming. Despite Montana's No. 5 ranking in wind potential by the American Wind Energy Association, statistics from the Department of Energy have Montana accounting for only 145 megawatts of wind power out of a total of 16,596 MW nationwide.
On Tuesday, Governor Brian Schweitzer announced that German wind turbine manufacturer Fuhrlander AG plans to construct a new manufacturing facility near Butte, with the expectation that turbine demand will greatly increase in the coming years.
And this spring Spanish wind developer Naturener will begin construction on the first phase of a wind power facility near Shelby called McCormick Wind Farm that could more than double the state's current capacity.
[more]
wilderness issues lecture series
Climate Change Coverage Lacking, Experts SayWhen it comes to the hot topic of climate change, the news media needs to do a better job of clarifying the science and shifting the conversation toward solutions, a trio of panelists agreed Tuesday night as part of the ongoing Wilderness Issues Lecture Series at the University of Montana.
The challenge for the media in providing sufficient and accurate coverage of environmental news, particularly climate change, is partly due to its nature, the panelists said.
The media likes breaking stories, or at least stories that have a clear sequence of events, “but stories like those on climate and the environment don’t break, they ooze. They ooze over time,” said panelist Frank Allen.
[more]
FireSafe Montana Conference
Rural Growth, Climate and the Wildland-Urban Interface
The wildfire issue is a pressing one in the New West. Fire seasons are getting longer and drier by the year, fires are more severe, and, to top it off, the modern western migration is bringing an unprecedented influx of homes into the wildland-urban interface (WUI).
As wildland fire suppression operations increasingly consume dwindling Forest Service budgets and taxpayers grow ever wearier of footing the pricey bill of defending homes in the WUI, the onus for preparation and protection is increasingly falling on homeowners and local communities.
In 2006, interested parties from the public and private sector gathered in Helena at the Montana Communities and Wildfire Conference to begin a new discussion on the WUI and the West’s changing fire seasons. According to organizers, participants expressed overwhelming support for the formation of a non-governmental non-profit to perform public education, outreach and on-the-ground assistance in wildfire mitigation in the WUI. The result is FireSafe Montana, which held its first annual conference in Bozeman this week.
[more]
Bison Reintroduction Discussed
Revamping the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge Conservation Plan
Officials from the Lewistown-based U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) held a public meeting in Bozeman on Thursday, answering questions and taking comments on the formation of a 15-year comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Montana’s treasured Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR), the second largest national refuge in the lower 48. The previous plan was written in 1986.
The 1.1 million acre refuge along the Missouri River and Fort Peck Reservoir in northeastern Montana is home to well over 200 species of birds and a host of mammals including bighorn sheep, elk, pronghorn antelope, swift fox and the endangered black-footed ferret. The CMR is also a major recreational use area for hunters and fishermen.
The FWS extended the public scoping comment deadline to February 29, 2008. There will be two more public comment periods after plan alternatives and a draft are formed. The FWS hopes to have a final plan finished by Fall 2011.
[more]
wilderness issues lecture series
Law Professor Says Government Obligated to Curb Climate ChangeThe government’s failure to protect the atmosphere from climate change is a violation of its “fiduciary duties” as guardian of the nation’s natural resources, distinguished University of Oregon Law Professor Mary Wood said in a Wilderness Issues Lecture Series address to the University of Montana campus Tuesday night.
Citing common law and a variety of other statutory frameworks like the Clean Air Act, Wood argued the atmosphere, like all natural resources, belongs to the people as a natural trust administered by the government. The government then has a legal responsibility as trustee to maintain these resources for the benefit of present and future generations.
“Our imperiled atmosphere is the most vital asset of the trust,” Wood said. “A government that fails to protect its natural resources sentences its people to misery.”
[more]
Death For Subsidies
Corn Fuel = CO2 Emissions
In what ought to serve as a death-knell for corn-ethanol subsidies in the U.S., two studies from the new issue of the journal Science strongly indicate that the increased substitution of certain biofuels will actually exacerbate global climate change rather than slow it down.
While the researchers, from an array of independent institutions including Princeton University, Woods Hole Research Center, and Iowa State (smack in the heart of corn country), examined a variety of fuels, the chief culprit is clearly corn. Clearing land to grow additional corn stocks to make ethanol would release twice as much greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over the next 30 years as just burning regular gasoline.
In other energy news: BLM releases environmental impact statement on oil-shale production in the Rockies; EPA orders Colorado to examine gas-well air pollution rise; and state legislature eyes overcharging by cities for solar-power permits.
[more]
Power to the People
Energy Expansion Across the West
Resort communities require a lot of kilowatts, and bustling Big Sky, Montana is no exception to this rule; between 1996 and 2005 there were 660 new residential units built in Big Sky – a dramatic 8.2 percent increase. And this does not include the Moonlight Basin and Yellowstone Club ski resorts.
In order to meet the energy needs of Big Sky, Northwestern Energy is planning to upgrade the existing 69-kV power line from Four Corners to Big Sky with a 161-kV line. Northwestern is also seeking to bypass state and public review through right-of-way agreements with private landowners to build the 35-mile, $20-$30 million line.
In order to serve a slightly larger growing population, the West Wide Energy Corridor federal plan is buzzing right along with a public comment period closing on Thursday, February 14, 2008. The corridor could affect nearly 3 million acres in 11 Western states.
[more]
wilderness lecture series
Climate Change Impacts More Than Glacier’s Glaciers
Thanks to a changing climate, not only may Glacier National Park need a new name, but eventually a new mascot. The park’s iconic mountain goats are already feeling the impacts of climate change, said Dan Fagre, a research ecologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Glacier National Park.
“This is ironic because the mountain goat is the icon of Glacier National Park,” Fagre told a mixed crowd of students and community members at the University of Montana Tuesday night.
Mountain goats are not the only species impacted by a changing climate. Rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns will provide some species opportunity expand their range, while others will shrink or die out altogether.
[more]
"you have to have a firm belief that Global warmng is a fact"
Partial Thaw on Global Warming in Idaho Senate
Noting that he had his spray bottle of Roundup weedkiller on the table, Senate Resources and Environment Committee chair Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, presided Monday over a slightly chilly debate about global warming.
Several Republican lawmakers were frozen toward the subject, but Sen. Kate Kelly’s skillful presentation of Concurrent Resolution 17879 helped warm enough of them to print the bill.
The bill’s emphasis on economic opportunity seemed to make the hot topic of the existence of global warming temporarily cool enough to handle.
[more]
