June 5th is World Environment Day

Established in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly, World Environment Day (WED) brings international attention to environmental concerns in the hopes of stimulating public action. Held on June 5th, WED is hosted each year by a different city. This year's event will be held in Wellington, New Zealand with the slogan: Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy.

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United Nations Environment Programme

environment

EPA Publishes Annual National Greenhouse Gas Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the national greenhouse gas inventory, which finds that overall emissions during 2006 decreased by 1.1 percent from the previous year. The report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006, is the latest in an annual set of reports that the United States submits to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.

“Each year since 1993, EPA’s experts have built a comprehensive inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions,” said Robert Meyers principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office Air and Radiation. “Our understanding of emission sources is paramount to combating climate change.”

Total emissions of the six main greenhouse gases in 2006 were equivalent to 7,054.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. The report indicates that overall emissions have grown by 14.7 percent from 1990 to 2006, while the U.S. economy has grown by 59 percent over the same period.

The decrease in emissions in 2006 was due primarily to a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption. The following factors were primary contributors to this decrease:
· compared to 2005, 2006 had warmer winter conditions, which decreased consumption of heating fuels, as well as cooler summer conditions, which reduced demand for electricity;
· restraint on fuel consumption caused by rising fuel prices, primarily in the transportation sector; and
· increased use of natural gas and renewables in the electric power sector.

EPA prepares the annual report in collaboration with experts from multiple federal agencies and after gathering comments from a broad range of stakeholders across the country.

The inventory tracks annual greenhouse gas emissions at the national level and presents historical emissions from 1990 to 2006. The inventory also calculates carbon dioxide emissions that are removed from the atmosphere by “sinks,” e.g., through the uptake of carbon by forests, vegetation and soils.

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Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report

climate change

EPA Seeks Public Comment on U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on a draft annual report that analyzes sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006, will be open for public comment for 30 days after the Federal Register notice is published.

The major finding in this year's draft report is that overall emissions during 2006 decreased by 1.5 percent from the previous year. This decrease was due primarily to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption. Total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2006 were about 7,202 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Overall, emissions have grown by 14.1 percent from 1990 to 2006 while the U.S. economy has grown by 59 percent over the same period.

The inventory tracks annual greenhouse gas emissions at the national level and presents historical emissions from 1990 to 2006. The inventory also calculates carbon dioxide emissions that are removed from the atmosphere by "sinks," e.g., through the uptake of carbon by forests, vegetation, and soils.

EPA prepares the annual report in collaboration with experts from multiple federal agencies. After responding to public comments, the U.S. government will submit the final inventory report to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, fulfilling its annual requirement as a party to this international treaty on climate change. The UNFCCC treaty, ratified by the United States in 1992, sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change.

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EPA - information on the draft report and how to submit public comments

Stanford Scientist Produces First-Ever Study Linking Increased Mortality Specifically to Carbon Dioxide Emissions

A Stanford scientist has spelled out for the first time the direct links between increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and increases in human mortality, using a state-of-the-art computer model of the atmosphere that incorporates scores of physical and chemical environmental processes. The new findings, to be published in Geophysical Research Letters, come to light just after the Environmental Protection Agency's recent ruling against states setting specific emission standards for this greenhouse gas based in part on the lack of data showing the link between carbon dioxide emissions and their health effects.

While it has long been known that carbon dioxide emissions contribute to climate change, the new study details how for each increase of 1 degree Celsius caused by carbon dioxide, the resulting air pollution would lead annually to about a thousand additional deaths and many more cases of respiratory illness and asthma in the United States, according to the paper by Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. Worldwide, upward of 20,000 air-pollution-related deaths per year per degree Celsius may be due to this greenhouse gas.

"This is a cause and effect relationship, not just a correlation," said Jacobson of his study, which on Dec. 24 was accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters. "The study is the first specifically to isolate carbon dioxide's effect from that of other global-warming agents and to find quantitatively that chemical and meteorological changes due to carbon dioxide itself increase mortality due to increased ozone, particles and carcinogens in the air."

Jacobson said that the research has particular implications for California. This study finds that the effects of carbon dioxide's warming are most significant where the pollution is already severe. Given that California is home to six of the 10 U.S. cities with the worst air quality, the state is likely to bear an increasingly disproportionate burden of death if no new restrictions are placed on carbon dioxide emissions.

On Dec. 19, the Environmental Protection Agency denied California and 16 other states a waiver that would have allowed the states to set their own emission standards for carbon dioxide, which are not currently regulated. The EPA denied the waiver partly on the grounds that no special circumstances existed to warrant an exception for the states.

Stephen L. Johnson, the EPA administrator, was widely quoted as saying that California's petition was denied because the state had failed to prove the "extraordinary and compelling conditions" required to qualify for a waiver. While previous published research has focused on the global effect on pollution—but not health—of all the greenhouse gases combined, the EPA noted that, under the Clean Air Act, it has to be shown that there is a reasonable anticipation of a specific pollutant endangering public health in the United States for the agency to regulate that pollutant.

Jacobson's paper offers concrete evidence that California is facing a particularly dire situation if carbon dioxide emissions increase. "With six of the 10 most polluted cities in the nation being in California, that alone creates a special circumstance for the state," he said, explaining that the health-related effects of carbon dioxide emissions are most pronounced in areas that already have significant pollution. As such, increased warming due to carbon dioxide will worsen people's health in those cities at a much faster clip than elsewhere in the nation.

According to Jacobson, more than 30 percent of the 1,000 excess deaths (mean death rate value) due to each degree Celsius increase caused by carbon dioxide occurred in California, which has a population of about 12 percent of the United States. This indicates a much higher effect of carbon-dioxide-induced warming on California health than that of the nation as a whole.
Jacobson added that much of the population of the United States already has been directly affected by climate change through the air they have inhaled over the last few decades and that, of course, the health effects would grow worse if temperatures continue to rise.

Jacobson's work stands apart from previous research in that it uses a computer model of the atmosphere that takes into account many feedbacks between climate change and air pollution not considered in previous studies. Developed by Jacobson over the last 18 years, it is considered by many to be the most complex and complete atmospheric model worldwide. It incorporates principles of gas and particle emissions and transport, gas chemistry, particle production and evolution, ocean processes, soil processes, and the atmospheric effects of rain, winds, sunlight, heat and clouds, among other factors.

For this study, Jacobson used the computer model to determine the amounts of ozone and airborne particles that result from temperature increases caused by increases in carbon dioxide emissions. Ozone causes and worsens respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, emphysema and asthma, and many published studies have associated increased ozone with higher mortality. "[Ozone] is a very corrosive gas; it erodes rubber and statues," Jacobson said. "It cracks tires. So you can imagine what it does to your lungs in high enough concentrations." Particles are responsible for cardiovascular and respiratory illness and asthma.

Jacobson arrived at his results of the impact of carbon dioxide globally and, at higher resolution, over the United States by modeling the changes that would occur when all current human and natural gas and particle emissions were considered versus considering all such emissions except human-emitted carbon dioxide.

Jacobson simultaneously calculated the effects of increasing temperatures on pollution. He observed two important effects:

- Higher temperatures due to carbon dioxide increased the chemical rate of ozone production in urban areas.
- Increased water vapor due to carbon dioxide-induced higher temperatures boosted chemical ozone production even more in urban areas.

Interestingly, neither effect was so important under the low-pollution conditions typical of rural regions, though other factors, such as higher organic gas emissions from vegetation, affected ozone in low-pollution areas. Higher emissions of organic gases also increased the quantity of particles in the air, as organic gases can chemically react to form particles.

And in general, where there was an increase in water vapor, particles that were present became more deadly, as they swelled from absorption of water. "That added moisture allows other gases to dissolve in the particles—certain acid gases, like nitric acid, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid," Jacobson said. That increases the toxicity of the particles, which are already a harmful component of air pollution.

Jacobson also found that air temperatures rose more rapidly due to carbon dioxide than did ground temperatures, changing the vertical temperature profile, which decreased pollution dispersion, thereby concentrating particles near where they formed.

In the final stage of the study, Jacobson used the computer model to factor in the spatially varying population of the United States with the health effects that have been demonstrated to be associated with the aforementioned pollutants.

"The simulations accounted for the changes in ozone and particles through chemistry, transport, clouds, emissions and other processes that affect pollution," Jacobson said. "Carbon dioxide definitely caused these changes, because that was the only input that was varied."

"Ultimately, you inhale a greater abundance of deleterious chemicals due to carbon dioxide and the climate change associated with it, and the link appears quite solid," he said. "The logical next step is to reduce carbon dioxide: That would reduce its warming effect and improve the health of people in the U.S. and around the world who are currently suffering from air pollution health problems associated with it."

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Stanford News Source

EPA Calculator Puts Greenhouse Gas Savings in Everyday Terms

Can you picture what it means to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 1 million metric tons? News stories are packed with measurements of greenhouse gas reductions, but it can be difficult to understand them until now. EPA's new Greenhouse Gas Calculator helps you turn greenhouse gas savings into more easily understood everyday terms.

The calculator converts greenhouse gas-related savings estimates, typically presented in "million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents," into familiar terms such as the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from:

· Driving a particular number of cars for a year,
· Using a particular amount of gasoline or barrels of oil,
· Using a particular number of tanker trucks' worth of gasoline,
· Providing energy to a particular number of homes for a year,
· Growing trees across a particular number of acres for a year,
· Recycling a particular quantity of waste instead of sending it to the landfill, or
· Generating electricity from a particular number of coal fired power plants for a year.

Users can enter savings in emissions, electricity consumption, gallons of gasoline, or number of vehicles into the calculator and determine up to 13 different ways to express the magnitude of the savings. The calculator uses the latest emission factors, approaches and statistics available through 2007.

As an example, if a typical household switched all its incandescent light bulbs to Energy Star qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs, it would save about 75 percent of the lighting electricity use, or about 1,463 kWh a year.

After five years, these energy savings are equivalent to:
· Saving about 10,289 pounds of CO2 emissions,
· Conserving 530 gallons of gasoline,
· Saving 11 barrels of oil,
· Planting 120 tree seedlings, or
· Recycling 1.6 tons of waste.

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EPA - Greenhouse Gas Calculator

global-warming

Increase of Global CO2 Emissions Alarming

USA Today reported today on a recent study by Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology that during the 1990's, emissions of carbon dioxide rose about 1.3% per year. But the rate of emissions after 2000 increased to 3.3% per year.

The growing global economy is fueling an increase in fossil fuels burned and an increase in the manufacturing of cement, both of which contribute to rising carbon emissions. In 2000, 7 billion metric tons of carbon were released into the atmosphere. By 2006 emissions had increased by 8.4 billion metric tons.

Researchers now believe that the Earth's plants, oceans and land can no longer naturally absorb the excess carbon, causing a build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere and increasing the effect of global warming.

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USA Today

global-warming

Congo Clearing Contributing to Climate Change

A new report released by Greenpeace exposes that international logging companies operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are causing social chaos and wreaking environmental havoc. “Carving up the Congo,” presented in four sections, uncovers endemic corruption in the DRC’s logging sector at a time when key decisions that will determine the future of these forests are about to be made.

The Congo rainforest is the world’s second largest tropical forest after the Amazon and one of the planet’s essential defenses against global climate change. Global emissions from tropical deforestation alone contribute up to 25% of total annual human-induced CO2 emissions.

The DRC rainforest contains 8% of global carbon stores. It is estimated that forest clearance in the DRC will release up to 34.4 billion tons of CO2 by 2050.

"It’s crunch time for the DRC’s rainforests. The international logging industry operating in the country is out of control. Unless the World Bank helps the DRC to stop the sell off of these rainforests, they’ll soon be under the chainsaws," said Greenpeace International Africa Forest Campaign Co-ordinator, Stephan van Praet.

In spite of a national moratorium on logging titles since 2002, 100 logging contracts covering 15 million hectares of rainforest have been issued to the logging industry, an area five times the size of Belgium. 40 million people depend on the DRC’s rainforest. Few benefit from logging. The World Bank admits that in the last three years, none of the forest area taxes paid by companies have reached forest communities.

Greenpeace is calling for the cancellation of all logging titles issued since May 2002 and for the moratorium on new logging titles to be extended and enforced until the logging sector is cleaned up and controlled and a land-use plan that includes the participation of local communities is fully in place.

The complete report is available on the Greenpeace website.

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Greenpeace International: Greenpeace exposes that logging in the Congo rainforest is out of control