According to scientists interviewed by National Geographic magazine for a story that is part of their special series exploring the global water crisis, Pakistan’s current monsoonal floods have been made far worse as the result of decades of river mismanagement dating back to the time of British colonial rule. The authors go on to link the history of river mismanagement in Pakistan to that happening now and in the past within the Mississippi River valley. "In Pakistan’s wide plains where the bulk of the population lives, the rivers swelled by monsoons have been confined by levees, dams, and canals," the article states, "in much the same way the Mississippi River has in the United States."
Read the entire National Geographic article here. And you can read my opinion piece regarding an underlying contributor to much of this year's rash of extreme weather events, including the flooding in Iowa and Pakistan, below in this blog.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
“God’s Wrath?”
Twenty percent of Pakistan is beneath what once was a tamed Indus River; a River until recently held in check by miles of levees (not unlike the state of much of the Mississippi River). The Indus River was in check, that is, until what U.N. officials are calling the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change drove the River beyond its banks, forcing thousands to flee and adding their desperation to the millions in the region already in need of relief. "If this is not God’s wrath, what is?" 40-year-old taxi driver Bakht Zada wondered, as he watched his livelihood, history and culture being washed downstream toward the Indian Ocean.
Researcher, writer and university professor Wolfgang Sachs once noted that "Nothing is ultimately as irrational as rushing with maximum efficiency in the wrong direction." From where I sit, Professor Sachs has captured the human condition very well, as we heedlessly stroll down the road toward catastrophe at a very efficient pace. The tempo at which we pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere continues to increase while evidence mounts daily that says following such a path is folly. While a fifth of Pakistan sits under water, Russia’s drought-ridden landscape burns and 700 people die each day, China is having its worst floods in decades, ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet is expanding rapidly up its northwest coast, and Iowa has been soaked by its wettest 36-month period in nearly 13 decades of record-keeping.
Climatologists are now openly saying what laypeople have been wondering aloud for months. The Pakistani flooding, Russian heat wave and other extreme weather events occurring around the globe are linked to and exacerbated by climate change. Scientists at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported this week that “the sequence of current events matches . . . projections of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming.” Almost simultaneously, 16 of Australia’s leading scientists, speaking through the Australian Academy of Science and across a range of disciplines, produced a report pointedly confronting climate change deniers in an effort to set the record straight on climate science in the middle of a national election in which the validity of climate change has been hotly contested.
The degree to which the Pakistani flooding and other extreme weather events are due to climate change layered upon more typical climatic cycles (or, even as Mr. Zada suggests, due to the wrath of God) is certainly questionable. However, that climate change is occurring at all can no longer be questioned by people of good conscious. Nor can we continue to rationally deny humanity’s historic and continued contributions to climate change. Yet, we still question and debate the latter point and still deny that the earth’s climate is changing at all. Fiddling, in effect, while the world – now all too literally – burns.
That some still question the human influence on climate change is ironic, to say the least, since the underlying cultural ethos of ever-increasing production founded upon ever-improving efficiency goes largely unquestioned, while that increasing production is linked directly to escalating climate change. In fact, the need for increased productivity is not only an unchallenged truism but has been deified, particularly in our western culture, where we pride ourselves in being efficient. The more productive and efficient a people are, our cultural myth goes, the more likely we are to prosper as a nation, to survive as a culture and to be more comfortable doing it. We reach, yearn and strive for higher productivity; try our utmost to do more, make more and consume more with less effort, less money, less guilt. And doing, producing and consuming more for less - all iconic measures of efficiency - are unquestionably good. Right?
Our parents used to tell us that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Today, we can add “productive” and “efficient” to the list of qualities that raise us closer to divinity.
Rachel Carson observed that we live in a time “in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.” Seldom challenged, because we have elevated efficiency and productivity to a godlike status. Increasing factory productivity goes unquestioned, even if it means laying off employees who have dedicated themselves to a company for decades. Proficiently pumping pollutants into the air we breathe and water we drink is rewarded, so long as we are comfortable while productively poisoning ourselves and the planet.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent,” Albert Einstein warned, “It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” What we need now are a little less intelligent foolishness and a lot more people of courage to question our blind devotion to the god of productivity: to ask why when productivity is deemed sacrosanct; to question power when the idol of unbridled growth goes unchallenged; to speak truth in the face of a torrent of misinformation.
Perhaps Pakistani taxi driver Bakht Zada is correct after all. If it is our twenty-first century god of ever-increasing production that is ultimately causing our climate devastation, then the Indus River flooding may, in the end, have been the result of a god’s wrath, albeit a god of our own making. "If this is not God’s wrath, what is?"
Researcher, writer and university professor Wolfgang Sachs once noted that "Nothing is ultimately as irrational as rushing with maximum efficiency in the wrong direction." From where I sit, Professor Sachs has captured the human condition very well, as we heedlessly stroll down the road toward catastrophe at a very efficient pace. The tempo at which we pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere continues to increase while evidence mounts daily that says following such a path is folly. While a fifth of Pakistan sits under water, Russia’s drought-ridden landscape burns and 700 people die each day, China is having its worst floods in decades, ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet is expanding rapidly up its northwest coast, and Iowa has been soaked by its wettest 36-month period in nearly 13 decades of record-keeping.
Climatologists are now openly saying what laypeople have been wondering aloud for months. The Pakistani flooding, Russian heat wave and other extreme weather events occurring around the globe are linked to and exacerbated by climate change. Scientists at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported this week that “the sequence of current events matches . . . projections of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming.” Almost simultaneously, 16 of Australia’s leading scientists, speaking through the Australian Academy of Science and across a range of disciplines, produced a report pointedly confronting climate change deniers in an effort to set the record straight on climate science in the middle of a national election in which the validity of climate change has been hotly contested.
The degree to which the Pakistani flooding and other extreme weather events are due to climate change layered upon more typical climatic cycles (or, even as Mr. Zada suggests, due to the wrath of God) is certainly questionable. However, that climate change is occurring at all can no longer be questioned by people of good conscious. Nor can we continue to rationally deny humanity’s historic and continued contributions to climate change. Yet, we still question and debate the latter point and still deny that the earth’s climate is changing at all. Fiddling, in effect, while the world – now all too literally – burns.
That some still question the human influence on climate change is ironic, to say the least, since the underlying cultural ethos of ever-increasing production founded upon ever-improving efficiency goes largely unquestioned, while that increasing production is linked directly to escalating climate change. In fact, the need for increased productivity is not only an unchallenged truism but has been deified, particularly in our western culture, where we pride ourselves in being efficient. The more productive and efficient a people are, our cultural myth goes, the more likely we are to prosper as a nation, to survive as a culture and to be more comfortable doing it. We reach, yearn and strive for higher productivity; try our utmost to do more, make more and consume more with less effort, less money, less guilt. And doing, producing and consuming more for less - all iconic measures of efficiency - are unquestionably good. Right?
Our parents used to tell us that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Today, we can add “productive” and “efficient” to the list of qualities that raise us closer to divinity.
Rachel Carson observed that we live in a time “in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.” Seldom challenged, because we have elevated efficiency and productivity to a godlike status. Increasing factory productivity goes unquestioned, even if it means laying off employees who have dedicated themselves to a company for decades. Proficiently pumping pollutants into the air we breathe and water we drink is rewarded, so long as we are comfortable while productively poisoning ourselves and the planet.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent,” Albert Einstein warned, “It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” What we need now are a little less intelligent foolishness and a lot more people of courage to question our blind devotion to the god of productivity: to ask why when productivity is deemed sacrosanct; to question power when the idol of unbridled growth goes unchallenged; to speak truth in the face of a torrent of misinformation.
Perhaps Pakistani taxi driver Bakht Zada is correct after all. If it is our twenty-first century god of ever-increasing production that is ultimately causing our climate devastation, then the Indus River flooding may, in the end, have been the result of a god’s wrath, albeit a god of our own making. "If this is not God’s wrath, what is?"
Friday, August 13, 2010
Mississippi River Water Resource News for (a slow Congressional Recess) Week
From Whence Cometh the Carp? (Hint: the answer is up for debate)
This news items was released by Great Lakes United earlier this week (August 11) regarding conclusions that are being reached by some on the life history (including potentially an Illinois River origination) of an invasive bighead carp caught in Lake Calumet, near Lake Michigan (media release here). A new report has been released which attempts to determine the life history of the bighead carp captured on June 22, 2010, in Lake Calumet, just 6 miles from Lake Michigan. Great Lakes United, in partnership with Alliance for the Great Lakes, Healing Our Waters Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Prairie Rivers Network have produced a fact sheet to "unravel the science and clear up some of the misconceptions behind the bighead carp found in Lake Calumet." The Fact Sheet can be read (as a pdf file) here.
Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week:
IA State Senator Rob Hogg's statement on recent Iowa flooding & the need for sustainable flood prevention http://bit.ly/9yhaIk
Iowa League of Cities lawsuit accuses EPA of misinterpreting stormwater & wastewater rules http://bit.ly/9I53J3
Scientists: Marshes along the LA coast may be rebounding from spill http://bit.ly/b4rxVy & http://bit.ly/9IhHNx
Ames IA resigned to bottled water after floods http://bit.ly/9dAdRC
Ames IA opens drinking water sites for residents after line breaks blamed on flooding RT @MinnesotaNews http://bit.ly/b8enis
Worst flooding in Ames IA history forces hundreds from their homes http://bit.ly/bghK6k
USDA: US farmers on track to produce largest corn & soybean crop in history http://bit.ly/cxcJq4
Call for papers: Intnl Symposium on Society & Resource Management, "Integrating Conservation & Sustainable Living" http://bit.ly/bquXW8
Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems study bibliography: http://bit.ly/9qSpGu & latest paper: http://bit.ly/cIYc5W (pdf)
Inspector General: EPA hiring process fails to place right candidates in right positions; blocking mission http://bit.ly/bRUNWR (pdf file)
Excessive heat warnings issued for states along Mississippi River & heat advisory covers other midwestern states http://bit.ly/2C0ou
NOAA: U.S. July 75.5 F average was 1.3 degrees above the 1901-2000 long-term average http://bit.ly/cXpfB1
OSU study: Whether planted or naturally colonized, new wetlands similar at year 15 & function as effective C sinks http://bit.ly/9Bcw0F
Read EDF's Delta Dispatches: with the Latest News on Efforts to Restore Coastal Louisiana http://bit.ly/bMANYc
1000s gather for annual fishing tournament in Illinois & join fight vs Asian Carp in the process http://bit.ly/aymVdr
Enviros seek $2.7 billion for wastewater infrastructure http://bit.ly/9HXRuP
RT @EcoInteractive: Scientists find changes to Gulf of Mexico dead zone http://www.physorg.com/news200589904.html
Genetically engineered versions of canola plant flourishing as roadside weeds in ND http://nyti.ms/bLBonG
Zebra Mussels Continue to Spread in Kansas and Missouri http://bit.ly/9aAYXh and http://bit.ly/duyrre
Wisconsin DNR steps up efforts against invasive species http://bit.ly/9x2FMg
This news items was released by Great Lakes United earlier this week (August 11) regarding conclusions that are being reached by some on the life history (including potentially an Illinois River origination) of an invasive bighead carp caught in Lake Calumet, near Lake Michigan (media release here). A new report has been released which attempts to determine the life history of the bighead carp captured on June 22, 2010, in Lake Calumet, just 6 miles from Lake Michigan. Great Lakes United, in partnership with Alliance for the Great Lakes, Healing Our Waters Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Prairie Rivers Network have produced a fact sheet to "unravel the science and clear up some of the misconceptions behind the bighead carp found in Lake Calumet." The Fact Sheet can be read (as a pdf file) here.
Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week:
IA State Senator Rob Hogg's statement on recent Iowa flooding & the need for sustainable flood prevention http://bit.ly/9yhaIk
Iowa League of Cities lawsuit accuses EPA of misinterpreting stormwater & wastewater rules http://bit.ly/9I53J3
Scientists: Marshes along the LA coast may be rebounding from spill http://bit.ly/b4rxVy & http://bit.ly/9IhHNx
Ames IA resigned to bottled water after floods http://bit.ly/9dAdRC
Ames IA opens drinking water sites for residents after line breaks blamed on flooding RT @MinnesotaNews http://bit.ly/b8enis
Worst flooding in Ames IA history forces hundreds from their homes http://bit.ly/bghK6k
USDA: US farmers on track to produce largest corn & soybean crop in history http://bit.ly/cxcJq4
Call for papers: Intnl Symposium on Society & Resource Management, "Integrating Conservation & Sustainable Living" http://bit.ly/bquXW8
Effects of Urbanization on Stream Ecosystems study bibliography: http://bit.ly/9qSpGu & latest paper: http://bit.ly/cIYc5W (pdf)
Inspector General: EPA hiring process fails to place right candidates in right positions; blocking mission http://bit.ly/bRUNWR (pdf file)
Excessive heat warnings issued for states along Mississippi River & heat advisory covers other midwestern states http://bit.ly/2C0ou
NOAA: U.S. July 75.5 F average was 1.3 degrees above the 1901-2000 long-term average http://bit.ly/cXpfB1
OSU study: Whether planted or naturally colonized, new wetlands similar at year 15 & function as effective C sinks http://bit.ly/9Bcw0F
Read EDF's Delta Dispatches: with the Latest News on Efforts to Restore Coastal Louisiana http://bit.ly/bMANYc
1000s gather for annual fishing tournament in Illinois & join fight vs Asian Carp in the process http://bit.ly/aymVdr
Enviros seek $2.7 billion for wastewater infrastructure http://bit.ly/9HXRuP
RT @EcoInteractive: Scientists find changes to Gulf of Mexico dead zone http://www.physorg.com/news200589904.html
Genetically engineered versions of canola plant flourishing as roadside weeds in ND http://nyti.ms/bLBonG
Zebra Mussels Continue to Spread in Kansas and Missouri http://bit.ly/9aAYXh and http://bit.ly/duyrre
Wisconsin DNR steps up efforts against invasive species http://bit.ly/9x2FMg
Thursday, August 12, 2010
King Lear on the Heath
I was honored to be one of several featured speakers on August 10 at the inaugural U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2010 Environmental Conference in Warrenton, Virginia. The purpose of the Conference was to foster improved communications, and to share senior environmental leadership experiences both internally within the Army Corps and as well as with external partners from environmental academia, NGOs, industry and other federal agencies. The conference focused on broad senior-level environmental issues and included such topics as climate change, sustainability, ecosystem restoration, renewable energy, and remediation, with an emphasis on learning, sharing, networking and reinforcing key concepts and strategies. In a talk entitled, "King Lear on the Heath," I spoke to the over 100 attendees about the complexity of the social, economical and ecological systems within which we are working, the "wicked problems" that can arise (seemingly - but not actually - out of nowhere) during our work within these systems, and how institutions (specifically the Army Corps of Engineers) might be better poised to employ "collaborative systems thinking" to stimulate thinking, proactively manage problems and handle inherent uncertainty.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Polls, Politics and Climate
The Earth is doing just fine, thank you very much. Those of the ilk who desire to save the Earth (arguably from the ravages of humankind) are missing the point, actually. Humans have been inhabiting the planet for but a hiccup of time in the grand scheme of things, and – despite any delusions to the contrary – will be gone in just as quick of a hiccup, no matter what our attempts to hang on might be. That’s simply the fate of species on this planet. Here today. Gone tomorrow. Look it up in the fossil record if you don’t want to take my word for it.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m an ecologist and an environmentalist and a tree-hugger extraordinaire. But I think what we’re really talking about when we express a desire to “save the Earth” is to survive . . . as a species, as a quiltwork of cultures (my culture especially) and as individuals. The Earth, frankly, and life on it doesn’t really need us as benefactors or protectors. What few scars we scratch on its surface will heal quickly. The roles of those species that vanish will rapidly be filled by others. Days will still be roughly 24 hours long and years still encompass one trip around the sun.
So, it was with no little amount of humor that I read this week an article in the New York Times about “dueling polsters” who are arguing one to the other in the media that their particular poll is the correct barometer to use when measuring public opinion with respect to climate change. I find this humorous for a lot of reasons. First, opinions of U.S. adults are extremely volatile, especially when viewed through the lenses of opinion poll questions designed to narrowly focus on one minute aspect of one select issue (such as placing a cap on carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere in hypothetical climate change legislation). Second, I would venture that most of the people being asked have no idea what carbon dioxide is and what its potential effects might be in the Earth’s atmosphere on climate change, or what the regulatory and economic impacts of a carbon dioxide cap and trade system might entail, or, even, what the “atmosphere” is. So are the poll results really an indication of anything given this knowledge gap? Third, of the 6.8 billion or so people on the Earth, the universe of people who really care about these poll results is really small and insignificant. That self-important minority includes the pollsters, themselves, who have a job to justify, politicians and their minions, who want to get their daily indication of which wind direction to follow, and policy and media wonks (like me), who might use the poll results to support an opinion that they already have and won’t change anyway.
Like this opinion of mine: “So what?” No one cares about the polls. They are meaningless in a very real sense. We still keep spewing out carbon dioxide and the Earth still keeps warming up very very nicely. Maybe someday humanity (the wealthy minority who over-consume and over-emit, that is) will be shocked into the realization that their own livelihoods and very lives of their children are at stake, and stop the mass suicide. But apart from all of that, the Earth will be just fine, folks. We can stop worrying about that and be honest about what and whom we really are trying to save: ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m an ecologist and an environmentalist and a tree-hugger extraordinaire. But I think what we’re really talking about when we express a desire to “save the Earth” is to survive . . . as a species, as a quiltwork of cultures (my culture especially) and as individuals. The Earth, frankly, and life on it doesn’t really need us as benefactors or protectors. What few scars we scratch on its surface will heal quickly. The roles of those species that vanish will rapidly be filled by others. Days will still be roughly 24 hours long and years still encompass one trip around the sun.
So, it was with no little amount of humor that I read this week an article in the New York Times about “dueling polsters” who are arguing one to the other in the media that their particular poll is the correct barometer to use when measuring public opinion with respect to climate change. I find this humorous for a lot of reasons. First, opinions of U.S. adults are extremely volatile, especially when viewed through the lenses of opinion poll questions designed to narrowly focus on one minute aspect of one select issue (such as placing a cap on carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere in hypothetical climate change legislation). Second, I would venture that most of the people being asked have no idea what carbon dioxide is and what its potential effects might be in the Earth’s atmosphere on climate change, or what the regulatory and economic impacts of a carbon dioxide cap and trade system might entail, or, even, what the “atmosphere” is. So are the poll results really an indication of anything given this knowledge gap? Third, of the 6.8 billion or so people on the Earth, the universe of people who really care about these poll results is really small and insignificant. That self-important minority includes the pollsters, themselves, who have a job to justify, politicians and their minions, who want to get their daily indication of which wind direction to follow, and policy and media wonks (like me), who might use the poll results to support an opinion that they already have and won’t change anyway.
Like this opinion of mine: “So what?” No one cares about the polls. They are meaningless in a very real sense. We still keep spewing out carbon dioxide and the Earth still keeps warming up very very nicely. Maybe someday humanity (the wealthy minority who over-consume and over-emit, that is) will be shocked into the realization that their own livelihoods and very lives of their children are at stake, and stop the mass suicide. But apart from all of that, the Earth will be just fine, folks. We can stop worrying about that and be honest about what and whom we really are trying to save: ourselves.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Mississippi River Water Resource News for the Week
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and Farm Conservation Funding
The Senate Agriculture Committee on March 24, passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S 3307), a bill introduced by Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) that would reauthorize child-nutrition programs, and that included a $4.5 billion increase in funding over 10 years for school, after-school and summer meal programs and for improvement in the nutritional quality of the meals. The increases in funding were to have been offset by, among other cuts, a $2.2 billion decrease in the authorization levels for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP); a USDA conservation program used by farmers and ranchers to address environmental problems on their land.
However, after some farm-state senators objected to using the EQIP subsidy money as an offset to pay for the nutrition program, by the time of the August 5, full Senate vote on the childhood nutrition bill, a deal had been struck to change the way it was paid for. That compromise took $2.2 billion out of future funding for food stamp programs instead of EQIP. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Hunger advocates who had previously supported the bill said they would now oppose it. House action on the measure will likely wait until after the August recess. The House of Representatives would need to pass its version of the bill in time for President Obama to sign the legislation before September 30, or the programs risk losing the newly found funding stream.
Appropriations
The Senate Appropriations Committee rushed to approve nine of its 12 spending bills over the past few weeks. The Senate has yet to clear the Interior-EPA bill, or the Defense and Legislative Branch proposals. The full House approved its transportation and veterans spending bills in floor votes in the last week in July, but the other 10 spending bills still await a full committee markup. See a Library of Congress summary table here.
WI state lawmakers take up phosphorus discharge rules to reduce algal blooms http://bit.ly/c71Qq2
Missouri Coalition for the Environment sues EPA over failure to protect waters http://bit.ly/9BDLuE
Mississippi River pours as much dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico as BP on a daily basis http://bit.ly/dcPiLd
Debate growing in US re: antibiotics used to fuel livestock growth http://bit.ly/dgD6KQ Denmark farmers have adjusted http://bit.ly/9QP9gb
Danish government official testifies http://bit.ly/blyH5f before congressional subcommittee on health threat of antibiotic resistance
U of MO Center for Sustainable Energy Greening Midwest Communities Conference (Oct 19-20) registration: http://bit.ly/btMk8C
Gulf Coast would get $1.2 B for restoration under House-passed Consolidated Land, Energy, & Aquatic Resources Act http://bit.ly/aFeIgx
Stanford U: Advances in agriculture have dramatically slowed releases of greenhouse gases http://bit.ly/9Ro2yi
Read EDF’s latest issue of Delta Dispatches with news of Coastal Louisiana restoration at http://bit.ly/dqy50u
Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee approves Sen. Chris Dodd's Livable Communities bill http://bit.ly/9ODicB
EPA petitioned to ban lead in sport hunting ammunition http://nyti.ms/bkIbUs
Goal of cleaning up Minnesota River watershed remains far behind schedule http://bit.ly/a4v2nk
Boat inspections failed to keep Zebra Mussels out of MN's Lake Minnetonka http://bit.ly/cPFKHw
Ankeny, IA aims to conserve stormwater with new incentive program http://bit.ly/cApZXq
The Senate Agriculture Committee on March 24, passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act (S 3307), a bill introduced by Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) that would reauthorize child-nutrition programs, and that included a $4.5 billion increase in funding over 10 years for school, after-school and summer meal programs and for improvement in the nutritional quality of the meals. The increases in funding were to have been offset by, among other cuts, a $2.2 billion decrease in the authorization levels for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP); a USDA conservation program used by farmers and ranchers to address environmental problems on their land.
However, after some farm-state senators objected to using the EQIP subsidy money as an offset to pay for the nutrition program, by the time of the August 5, full Senate vote on the childhood nutrition bill, a deal had been struck to change the way it was paid for. That compromise took $2.2 billion out of future funding for food stamp programs instead of EQIP. The bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Hunger advocates who had previously supported the bill said they would now oppose it. House action on the measure will likely wait until after the August recess. The House of Representatives would need to pass its version of the bill in time for President Obama to sign the legislation before September 30, or the programs risk losing the newly found funding stream.
Appropriations
The Senate Appropriations Committee rushed to approve nine of its 12 spending bills over the past few weeks. The Senate has yet to clear the Interior-EPA bill, or the Defense and Legislative Branch proposals. The full House approved its transportation and veterans spending bills in floor votes in the last week in July, but the other 10 spending bills still await a full committee markup. See a Library of Congress summary table here.
Current spending measures expire at the end of September, Congress is all but certain to pass a short-term continuing resolution to fund federal programs for the start of the 2011 Fiscal Year when it returns from August recess, which would extend funding at current Fiscal Year 2010 levels. Whether Congress will enact new Fiscal Year 2011 spending bills following the November election depends greatly on the outcome of the elections. On average, most of the spending bills passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee to date or cleared out of the House and Senate subcommittees keep FY 2011 spending at about the same levels as in FY 2010 for science and environmental programs, with slight adjustments up or down in some programs. However, if Congress goes through with additional cuts that some Senators and House members said they wish to pursue, then appropriators will need to find an additional $6 billion in cuts (possibly more, depending on which Member of Senator you listen to on the issue). Those proposed additional spending cuts seem to have bipartisan support, at least in the Senate.
Illusion and Reality
It's been a slow week in DC, what with the House half of Congress on recess. So, I'm going to take the liberty to muse a bit today. I took an English course in college called "Illusion and Reality" where we read several great books the central themes of which centered on the topic of what is real and what is illusion in people's lives (The Glass Menagerie is one that I recall was in the reading list). Click here to see a modern day example of illusion and reality. And if you liked that one, click here to watch the white dove change colors.
I present these optical illusions because I have a hard time sometimes figuring out what is illusion and what is reality with respect to lawmaking in our nation's capital. Maybe I need to read The Glass Menagerie again.
Illusion and Reality
It's been a slow week in DC, what with the House half of Congress on recess. So, I'm going to take the liberty to muse a bit today. I took an English course in college called "Illusion and Reality" where we read several great books the central themes of which centered on the topic of what is real and what is illusion in people's lives (The Glass Menagerie is one that I recall was in the reading list). Click here to see a modern day example of illusion and reality. And if you liked that one, click here to watch the white dove change colors.
I present these optical illusions because I have a hard time sometimes figuring out what is illusion and what is reality with respect to lawmaking in our nation's capital. Maybe I need to read The Glass Menagerie again.
Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week:
Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" this year among largest on record http://nyti.ms/9vqfskWI state lawmakers take up phosphorus discharge rules to reduce algal blooms http://bit.ly/c71Qq2
Missouri Coalition for the Environment sues EPA over failure to protect waters http://bit.ly/9BDLuE
Mississippi River pours as much dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico as BP on a daily basis http://bit.ly/dcPiLd
Debate growing in US re: antibiotics used to fuel livestock growth http://bit.ly/dgD6KQ Denmark farmers have adjusted http://bit.ly/9QP9gb
Danish government official testifies http://bit.ly/blyH5f before congressional subcommittee on health threat of antibiotic resistance
U of MO Center for Sustainable Energy Greening Midwest Communities Conference (Oct 19-20) registration: http://bit.ly/btMk8C
Gulf Coast would get $1.2 B for restoration under House-passed Consolidated Land, Energy, & Aquatic Resources Act http://bit.ly/aFeIgx
Stanford U: Advances in agriculture have dramatically slowed releases of greenhouse gases http://bit.ly/9Ro2yi
Read EDF’s latest issue of Delta Dispatches with news of Coastal Louisiana restoration at http://bit.ly/dqy50u
Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee approves Sen. Chris Dodd's Livable Communities bill http://bit.ly/9ODicB
EPA petitioned to ban lead in sport hunting ammunition http://nyti.ms/bkIbUs
Goal of cleaning up Minnesota River watershed remains far behind schedule http://bit.ly/a4v2nk
Boat inspections failed to keep Zebra Mussels out of MN's Lake Minnetonka http://bit.ly/cPFKHw
Ankeny, IA aims to conserve stormwater with new incentive program http://bit.ly/cApZXq
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Annual Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" Report Holds Few Surprises
The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" this year is among the largest on record, according to the results of the 25th annual dead-zone survey conducted by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. The dead or hypoxic zone, an area with levels of dissolved oxygen low enough to severely limit marine life, is 7,722 square miles in size this year; an area slightly smaller than the area of New Jersey. This year's area is slightly lower than the record of 8,000 square miles measured in 2001. You can read a complete New York Times article on this study here, and view the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium media release on its findings here.
According to the USGS, "the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico refers to an area along the Louisiana-Texas coast in which water near the bottom of the Gulf contains less than 2 parts per million of dissolved oxygen, causing a condition referred to as hypoxia. Hypoxia can cause fish to leave the area and can cause stress or death to bottom dwelling organisms that can’t move out of the hypoxic zone. Hypoxia is believed to be caused primarily by excess nutrients delivered from the Mississippi River in combination with seasonal stratification of Gulf waters. Excess nutrients promote algal and attendant zooplankton growth. The associated organic matter sinks to the bottom where it decomposes, consuming available oxygen. Stratification of fresh and saline waters prevents oxygen replenishment by mixing of oxygen-rich surface water with oxygen-depleted bottom water."Most of the nutrients referred to by the USGS in the above quote originate from agricultural runoff in the Mississippi River Basin (see: Nutrient Control Actions for Improving Water Quality in the Mississippi River Basin and Northern Gulf of Mexico (2009)).
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