GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
Australia is becoming too hot to inhabit in some areas. Persistently high temperatures and heat waves may make Australia the first place on Earth that is too hot for humans.
We are missing the boat on climate change prevention, our focus is now shifting to climate change adaptation. Cover crops in the US could help with climate adaptation, and the government might be willing to help with the cost. The Farm Bill in the US is hugely expensive. We could put all that money to good use instead of just paying large companies to grow corn, soy and wheat.
The US government is being forced to accept the realities of climate change, but government moves too slow to rise to the occasion. A new report outlines the very clear conditions of climate change. If your government fails you then take the effort into your own hands and become a more intelligent consumer. If we don’t buy dirty products and consume less resources then we can “green” our lifestyles without jeopardizing our quality of life. We can decide for ourselves how to be more environmental without giving up our quality of life. But, if you associate quality of life with driving everywhere in a gas-guzzling vehicle and eating burgers every day then maybe we are all just screwed.
The Shell oil company has been exploring for oil in the Arctic. Under the Obama administration the effort has been allowed but closely watched. In being a pragmatist with an “all of the above” energy approach Obama has essentially said to Shell that if they walk the talk of safe exploration then they will be allowed to drill for oil in the pristine, now melting Arctic. While environmentalists want this type of oil exploration just made off-limits, Obama has given Shell the chance to publicly fall on their faces. The risks for the environment are high here, but relatively small mistakes in the public eye could close off Arctic drilling all together until we develop other energy sources to the point where risky oil exploration just does not make economic sense for energy companies. In addition to exploration failures Shell is also under investigation for violating the Clean Air Act in the Arctic due to polluting the air more than they are allowed to. The Shell response? They are asking for more permits to pollute. Read More→
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Driven forward by Obama Administration actions on energy policy, the US is finally beginning to try to tap into and harness the tremendous clean and renewable energy of its offshore ocean winds and waters in earnest. On January 3, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it is seeking to determine whether or not there’s competitive interest in leasing an area offshore New York that the New York Power Authority (NYPA) has proposed as a site for an offshore wind power farm. The request also seeks to gather public comments on the proposed project’s environmental impacts and consequences and how the area is being used at present.
