California – The Flood that Could Change Everything California is spending billions to protect the millions at risk of a megaflood, but thanks to climate change, it’s too little too late. ARkStorm@SierraFront 2.0 This updates the USGS analysis below.
Category: Global Warming
Executive Order: Taking Action to Protect Communities and Reduce the Cost of Future Flood Disasters
Original Fact Sheet: Taking Action to Protect Communities and Reduce the Cost of Future Flood Disasters Executive Order – Establishing A Federal Flood Risk Management Standard And A Process For Further Soliciting And Considering Stakeholder Input FEMA Flood Risk Management Site…
Burn trees and save the world – EPA report on biomass fuel
Memo – Addressing Biogenic Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Stationary Sources (2014) Report – Framework for Assessing Biogenic CO2 Emissions from Stationary Sources
Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Change Disruption
Achieving Justice and Human Rights in an Era of Climate Change Disruption – original link International Bar Association Global climate change is a defining challenge of our time. It poses an effective obstacle to the continued progress of human rights, which…
The Delta Cycle and the Future of Coastal Louisiana
Chris McLindon and Edward Richards – Board of Commissioners of SLFPA-E vs. Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., et.al. – Legal and Geological Evaluation (View in slide show mode to see the animations.) This is a summary presentation of the issues: Time and River:Coastal…
U.N. – Sea-Level Rise in Small Island Nations
Sea-Level Rise in Small Island Nations – Up to Four Times the Global Average – to Cost US$ Trillions in Annual Economic Loss and Impede Future Development: Shift to Green Policies and Investment Critical Bridgetown, 5 June 2014 – Climate…
Exxon to World – You will never fix climate change
http://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/environment/climate-change/managing-climate-change-risks/carbon-asset-risk Exxon had to prepare this report due to pressures from activist shareholders. Their claim was that Exxon was overvaluing its reserves because greenhouse gas restrictions would make it impossible to produce them all. Thus the company’s stock was overvalued.…
Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Holocene – The hockey stick debate
Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years Committee on Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years, National Research Council, ISBN: 0-309-66144-7, 160 pages, 7 x 10, (2006) Because widespread, reliable instrumental records are available only for the last…
Warming of the Oceans and Implications for the (Re)insurance Industry
• There is new, robust evidence that the global oceans have warmed significantly. Given that energy from the ocean isthe key driver of extreme events, ocean warming has effectively caused a shift towards a “new normal” for a number of…
State of the Climate 2012 – NOAA
Blunden, J., and D. S. Arndt, Eds., 2013: State of the Climate in 2012. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 94 (8), S1–S238. Briefing Slides NOAA: 2012 was one of the 10 warmest years on record globally The end of weak La…
Environmental And Health Impacts Of Canada’S Oil Sands Industry
The Royal Society Of Canada Expert Panel, Executive Summary: Environmental And Health Impacts Of Canada’S Oil Sands Industry Development of the oil sands in northern Alberta has become an issue of growing public interest in recent year, with highly polarized…
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States – 2009
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States – 2009 What is this report? This report summarizes the science of climate change and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. It is largely…
The National Global Change Research Plan 2012-2021
The National Global Change Research Plan 2012-2021, NRC 2012 From the transmittal letter: I am pleased to transmit a copy of The National Global Change Research Plan 2012- 2021: A Strategic Plan for the U. S. Global Change Research Program…
Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1517374 or https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/docs/ssrn-id1517374.pdf The path of environmental law has come to a cliff called climate change, and there is no turning around. As climate change policy dialogue emerged in the 1990s, however, the perceived urgency of attention to mitigation strategies designed to…
EPA Green House Gas Regs
Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act Related Links Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the…
NOAA – State of the Climate in 2010
State of the Climate in 2010 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center As appearing in the June 2011 issue (Vol. 92) of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS). Supplemental and Summary Materials Report at a Glance:…
Fewer but Bigger Hurricanes?
Some models of the effect of climate change on hurricanes predict fewer storms but stronger storms. While all storms are a threat to the Louisiana coast, it is the large storms that threaten the very existence of cities such as New Orleans. Dr.…
Waterworld
http://www.tnr.com/article/environment-energy/magazine/77388/waterworld
“This fall, construction is set to begin on a $4 million pop-up floodwall near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It’s designed to be assembled quickly in the event that torrential rains cause the nearby Potomac River to spill into the city[…]
Florida’s Beaches – Caught between the ocean and a hard place
Florida is facing the same problems with global warming that face Louisiana: as the beaches try to retreat inland with ocean rise, they are stopped by armoring on developments. For Louisiana, this means the end of the wet lands. For…
Community Resilience – Lessons from Katrina
This report was published in 2008. While there are problems with some of the assumptions, New Orleans is no better prepared today than in 2008 because none of the sociological factors have changed – denial is still the operative planning…
Eaarth – A mini-review
Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben, Time Books (2010) First, my prejudice in reading this book – I was looking for a book to introduce law students to global warming and to the idea of adaption,…
Ocean Rise and Alaskan Native Villages
June 2009. GAO was asked to report on (1) the flooding and erosion threats that Alaska Native villages currently face, (2) the federal programs that are available to assist villages facing potential disasters, (3) the status of village relocation efforts, and (4) how federal assistance to relocating villages is prioritized. GAO interviewed and gathered documentation from federal and state agency officials as well as regional organizations and village representatives.
June 2004. Report of Statements of Robert A. Robinson, Managing Director Natural Resources and Environment; Villages Affected by Flooding and Erosion Have Difficulty Qualifying for Federal Assistance.
A Deadly Coast
Southern Louisiana is the most endangered land in the United States. Some risk is due to man made factors, but much of the risk is secondary to long-term geologic and weather cycles that have periodically raised and then inundated the…