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Free DSCOVR!
Mitchell Anderson, SEED
A climate satellite is built and paid for. Nations offer to launch it for free. Scientists say it’s an essential mission. So what’s it doing in a box outside DC?
At a time when the Earth’s climate is at the top of practically every nation’s agenda, it might seem perplexing that there’s a $100 million, fully completed climate-sensing satellite stored in a warehouse in Maryland.
The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) was supposed to be delivered five years ago to the L1 Lagrangian point—a gravity-neutral parking spot between the Earth and the sun that affords a continuous, sunlit view of the planet. From here, DSCOVR would measure the planet’s energy balance and reflectivity, known as albedo, which is critical data for calibrating climate change models and monitoring the ozone layer. Yet the mission was quietly killed this year, so the satellite is sitting in a box at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Could the decision to kill DSCOVR have anything to do with the politics of climate science? For years, Republicans have claimed the need for more data before acting to curb global warming
(Sept 2006 issue)
Mayor has plan to clear the air
Nickels says Seattle should set example for world
Robert McClure, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Saying Seattle must lead the world in battling the globe-warming gases that spew from our cars and furnaces and power plants, Mayor Greg Nickels today will unveil the most comprehensive plan to date to reduce Seattleites’ impact on the climate.
The plan amounts to a call for everyone who lives here — along with the city’s businesses — to change how they get around and how they heat and light their homes and offices. It could mean charging tolls for using certain roads, additional taxes on parking and other measures to encourage people to get out of their cars and use mass transit.
The 34-page list of actions Nickels is proposing range from the very specific — spending $530,000 over the next two years to save natural gas in city buildings, for instance — to aspirations whose outcome the city can’t control, such as persuading the Legislature to follow California’s lead and cap so-called “greenhouse gases.”
The basic message: Seattle can do this. And so can the world.
(27 Sept 2006)
Branson urges cooperation on climate change
Staff, Guardian
Sir Richard Branson today called on the global aviation industry to work together to tackle the growing issue of climate change and outlined plans for a “starting grid” on runways to reduce fuel use.
The billionaire businessman, who last week pledged US$3bn dollars towards renewable energy initiatives, said if airlines, airports, air traffic controllers and governments worked together, up to 25% of the world’s aviation carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be cut.
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He has written to other airlines, engine manufacturers and airport operators urging them to support a cross industry forum that will help deliver practical ways of tackling global warming.
The aviation industry is currently responsible for around 2% of global CO2 emissions, a figure Sir Richard claimed could be reduced to 1.5%.
(27 Sept 2006)
Economists on climate change: do we care?
Gerard Wynn, Reuters
Will the spending needed to prevent global warming cost the world more than just sitting back, or even enjoying the possible financial benefits of a hotter planet?
Economists are divided over that cold financial calculation in the week ahead of a major report on the issue to be presented to ministers of the world’s leading nations.
Some want action now to curb climate-changing emissions, saying that will cost little today but more if we delay, while others urge a slower approach, saying uncontrolled climate change will cost little or nothing in the short-term.
(26 Sept 2006)
Read it and weep. -AF
California: Legal hurdles cloud historic bill
Samantha Young, The Desert Sun
(AP) Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday is expected to sign into law the United States’ first state cap on greenhouse gas emissions, after striking a deal with legislative Democrats that brought California and the governor global notoriety.
But even before the bill is signed, the law’s future is in doubt.
Federal lawsuits related to greenhouse gas issues, involving California, Vermont and Massachusetts, could cloud California’s latest attempt to be a leader in the fight against global climate change.
(25 Sep 2006)
