I Need To Wake Up

Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse Reveals Exotic Animals

Blue ice fish, long-limbed sea stars, brilliantly colored tunicate clusters, and vast herds of sea cucumbers. As ice shelves collapse in Antarctica, scientists are cataloging the amazing diversity formerly hidden below the 5000 year old ice platforms.

Among the hundreds of specimens collected, the scientists identified 15 possible new species of shrimp-like amphipods, and four possible new species of cnidarians.

Must Have Ruined Bill O'Reilly's Oscar Party

Academy Awards 2007 and An Inconvenient Truth walked away with best documentary. Accepting the Oscar, Vice President Al Gore got laughs when he said said, “My fellow Americans, people all over the world — we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue. It’s a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewable resource. Let’s renew it.”

How could you make O'Reilly's night even more painful? Throw in a lesbian! An Inconvenient Truth also won a second Oscar. Melissa Etheridge was awarded the Oscar for the Best Song for I Need to Wake Up from the documentary.

Involving Dissolving

Though I couldn't pony-up for the steep registration fees for the AAAS annual conference last week here in San Francisco, I was keeping an eye open for ocean related news items that usually swirl around the meeting. I was particularly interested in papers focused on the implications of increased ocean acidification on marine life. One presentation last week, Ocean Acidification Bad for Shells and Reefs published in the current issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research, reported on data collected from ocean sampling in the Pacific Ocean from the southern to northern hemispheres confirming that the oceans are becoming more acidic.

The implications being, in part, that increasingly acidic oceans could wreak havoc on marine organisms that build their shells and skeletons from calcium carbonate (such as the planktonic pteropod mollusk pictured above). Since these creatures provide essential food and habitat for other ocean dwellers, the effects could ripple disastrously throughout the ocean.

Read the Science Daily synopsis The Rising Tide of Acid and also note that the author, an editor for Science magazine, quotes the old urban legend that soda (a mildly acidic solution saturated with CO2) can dissolve a tooth. Guess he didn't catch the MythBusters debunk that old chestnut last year. Stain a tooth? Yes. Dissolve a tooth? Nope.

Road Blocks, Check Points, and Cannibal Forks

I think I may have come up with a great new blog name with this post. Anyway, Bryan shot me a heads-up from Suva, he arrived safely and launched into a flurry of meetings. Averaging about 12 hour from Los Angeles, Fiji is not one of the most killer of Pacific flights I've had to endure. Heading to Singapore by way of Hong Kong is still topping my list of arduous, painful travel (certainly a slipped disk didn't help). Because Bryan is also visiting PNG on this trip, he's using Brisbane as a hub and stopping point to and from there and Fiji.

Since Suva is Fiji's capital city, it's also where disruptions as a result of the coup are most apparent. While Bryan reports things seem fairly quiet, he did mention there are military check points here and there around the city–though it appears there's more standing around than checking going on. No complaints from me here, to be sure. Bryan's meetings with the Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) group at the University of the South Pacific went well. Locally Managed Marine Areas are areas of nearshore waters being actively managed by local communities or resource-owning groups, or being collaboratively managed by resident communities with local government and/or NGO's. FLMMA is also home to the international LMMA Network, a group of marine conservation practitioners working in Asia and the Pacific who have joined together to increase the success of their efforts and share lessons learned.

With a slew of meetings under his belt, Bryan mentioned that he saved time to visit the Fiji National Museum. Some of the more memorable exhibits on display include a fantastic Fijian war canoe, the shoe of the Reverend Thomas Baker, a missionary who was eaten in 1867 (presumably his shoe was too chewy), and an assortment of cannibal forks. In case you glossed over that last part about the Reverend Thomas Baker, Fijians practiced cannibalism for a time. While cannibalism has fallen out of vogue among contemporary Fijians (or at least you don't hear about any modern stories the way you do in the PNG highlands today), you will have no problem finding ridiculously high-end luxury resorts throughout Fiji where your final room bill will make you feel as though you're being skinned alive.

新年快乐

As I'm still awake, thought I'd give a shout out to everyone celebrating the year of the Boar. 恭喜发财 – Congratulations and be prosperous all you boars (and boar lovers) out there. One source I checked says that people born under the year of the boar love nature and are never happier

than when they are out somewhere, far from the city. Well that's good enough for me and more of us should emulate such fine piggy attributes. Now dress in your finest red, throw open your windows, don't buy any new shoes today, and get your dim sum on.
Happy New Year!

What Coup?

With one of my program managers in Fiji as I write this, I must admit to spending more than a little time thinking about safety there following the latest coup. If you find yourself wondering, What coup? you’re in good company. What Coup? seems to be the Fiji Ministry of Tourism’s official slogan right now. You won’t find a word about it on their website. Considering that tourism is critical to Fiji’s economy (second only to textiles) you’ve got to expect some spin. But there’s spin, and there’s denial.

I don’t begin to admit complete understanding of what exactly transpired in Fiji, but the chain of events and political drama is sort of par for the course and fairly representative of the obstacles to effective conservation moving forward in developing countries.

On December 5, 2006 the Commander of Fiji’s military force, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and the lawfully elected government of Fiji and declared a state of emergency. The interim government established by the military declared a state of emergency that remains in effect to today. Many basic rights have apparently been curtailed, including the rights of assembly and freedom of expression.

In response to the coup, the US Department of State has issued a Public Announcement–which is sandwiched between Worldwide Caution and a Travel Warning on the Departments hierarchy of travel advisories. The announcement recommends that

private American citizens in Fiji evaluate their personal security. The security situation, especially in Suva, is uncertain and could deteriorate rapidly. Risks could include indiscriminate attacks on government or civilian targets particularly in the greater Suva area. American citizens in Fiji should remain vigilant, particularly in public and military places in the greater Suva area, and should avoid demonstrations and large crowds.

Perhaps you don’t follow South Pacific island politics closely so this coup might come as a surprise. But it’s only the latest in a long history of political and cultural tug-of-war that’s been unfolding in these beautiful coral islands for over a century. I’m certainly not going to attempt to redact the history of modern Fijian politics here. Others have either done it better (check out Getting Stoned With Savages by J. Maarten Troost) or are at the front lines and reporting frequently (Ms. Vakaivosavosa's Blog from Fiji takes a decidedly pro-Qarase stance while The Fiji Times provides a somewhat more balanced take.)

But what’s behind this latest shakeup? Interestingly, it has a lot to do with what I'm dealing with in my own work in Fiji. My principle project in Fiji is working to increase the management capacity and financial sustainability of the Namena Marine Protected Area (MPA). Namena MPA includes the island of Namenalala and its associated barrier and fringing reef systems that are part of the Lomaiviti Island Group, located between the two main Fijian islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.

Villagers of Kubulau District on Vanua Levu own the traditional fishing rights (qoliqoli) of the Namena barrier reef, on which they depend for their livelihood. Ownership of land and reefs by indigenous people is common throughout the Indo-Pacific. Often called customary marine tenure, ownership may be held by village, family, or individual and is often matrilineal.

An increase in commercial fishing in the 1980’s and ‘90’s posed a serious threat to Namena’s reefs. The chiefs (Ratu’s) of Kubulau responded in 1997 by placing a total ban on fishing through the creation of the Namena MPA.

So far, so good. Except when Fiji became a British colony in 1874, traditional ownership of Fiji’s shorelines and reefs passed from the Fijian clans to the state. And the state to this day does not officially recognize traditional ownership or qoliqoli (there is informal recognition, but that's a whole different story to tell.) This is where the current problems began. The Qarase government had introduced a Qoliqoli Bill in Fiji’s parliament which would return traditional inshore fishing rights to the indigenous Fijian clans. That bill would also change the rules for every established beach resort in Fiji.

Over the past year Commander Bainimarama has regularly complained about new laws proposed by the government of Prime Minister Qarase, justifying the Dec. 5 coup by referring to the need to stop some of them from being passed. One of these was the Qoliqoli Bill. Bainimarama has described the bill as racist (qoliqoli recognizes only Indigenous Fijians as land owners and excludes Indo-Fijian claims), unconstitutional and damaging to tourism. Had it become law, resort operators could have potentially faced enormous payments to traditional landowners in exchange for the right to access their beaches and reefs.

Face enormous payments to traditional landowners? What’s a resort owner to do? Well, one option might be to fuel a coup. CNN recently reported that Bainimarama's interest in the bill was heightened during a chance meeting on a flight he shared with Andrew Fairley, an Australian lawyer who just so happens to have been heavily involved with the Fiji Hotels Association in organizing a challenge to the Qoliqoli Bill. He also is a board member of Turtle Island. I’ll save you the time Google'ng… Turtle Island was the setting for the now cult classic 1980s movie Blue Lagoon and is one of Fiji's most exclusive resorts, where luxury villas run $US2,000 a night. The same Turtle Island that faced enormous payments to traditional landowners should the Qoliqoli Bill pass to law.

CNN reported that apparently Fairly used this chance meeting to discuss some politics. "I happened to be sitting next to the commander on the aircraft back from Sydney and we chatted, as you do, and he said, 'Tell me about this [Qoliqoli] Bill,' and I gave him this explanation and he said, 'Oh Gosh, that's serious,'" says Fairley. The commander was worried that the bill had "the potential to pit Fijian against Fijian," he says. "He said, 'Can you get more information about this?'"

Not only did he provide more information, Fairly provided complimentary holidays for Bainimarama and family. During the same conversation, the commander allegedly learned that United States Republican Senator John McCain was going to be holidaying at Turtle Island that Christmas. And honestly, who could pass up a chance to spend Christmas with the McCains? Fairly told CNN that "[Bainimarama] said he would really like to meet Senator McCain, who was shaping up as the next president of the United States. That was really the reason he [Bainimarama] went out to Turtle Island."

CNN confirmed through Turtle Island’s owner that Bainimarama and some members of his family spent several days on the island around Christmas time at no cost, and had met with McCain.

And here the web gets even more tangled. As it happens, Turtle Island’s owner, Richard Evanson, also takes a keen interest in Fijian politics, even helping to finance Former Prime Minister Qarase’s campaign after the 2000 coup. But he reported to CNN that he felt cheated after Qarase's government pushed ahead with the Qoliqoli bill. In the elections in May 2006, Evanson, a former bond trader in the U.S., backed one of Bainimarama's associates, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, to run for government. Ganilau is a former military commander who successfully recommended Bainimarama to succeed him as head of Fiji's armed forces when he stepped down in 1999.

Evanson declined to reveal how much he donated to Ganilau's National Alliance Party to run against the Qarase government, but some observers say it was a substantial sum in Fijian campaign funding. Ganilau's election bid failed, but he has remained influential in military affairs, telling CNN he has recently been advising Bainimarama's military but "only on ceremonial matters" in the lead-up to the coup.

So there you have it. Or at least you have one rendering, as the truth is always in the telling. It will be interesting to get the first hand perspective when Bryan returns from Fiji. He’ll be meeting with quite a few people in the capital of Suva, and I’m curious what life and opinion there is like day to day (aside from what The Fiji Times reports.) As Suva is predominantly Indo-Fijian, I suspect they may hold a decidedly negative position on qoliqoli, but perhaps for very different reasons than the resorts or coup leaders are admitting.

Savusavu Here We Come!

Well it's bon voyage tomorrow to Pacific Program Manager Bryan as he heads out for three weeks in the field. It's all Melanesia all the time with Fiji first and then off to Papua New Guinea. This is Bryan's very first visit to the Indo-Pacific so I know he is excited to meet all the partners and connect faces to names. Then there's the opportunity to dive and spend time around what we are all working to protect. I'd love to be going just to watch him enjoy the places and people with fresh eyes, but I'm still gun shy on any flight more ambitious than SFO to San Diego.

I think we gave Bryan as thorough a prep as he can get. Packing for our work is always a multiday process of laying out what you need, then slowly reducing that amount by half. We have been dinged with stiff tarrifs on numerous occasions for overweight baggage, too many checked bags, or too many carry-ons. Sure, a bribe can get your bags through in some places, but I think we won't be needing to worry about baggage on this trip as we'll be traveling light–it's mostly meetings and prep for follow-up trainings in a few months.

One of the highlights of any trip to Fiji has got to be partaking in the evening kava ceremony. Certainly the most vivid memory of my last trip to Savusavu and Taveuni was the late afternoon rhythmic metallic drone of kava root being pounded into a paste for the nightly kava bowls. I won't wax poetic here about the taste of kava. If you've tried it, you know. It tastes like dirt. Well, dirt in water. But there's that immediate pleasant numbness of tongue, lips, and mouth that grows with each additional shell of kava. Sure you can buy powdered kava for some stateside imbibing, but nothing quite matches getting your communal buzz on with friends and strangers around the kava bowl after a hard day of sweaty conservation work in the tropics.

After Fiji, Bryan is off to PNG for meetings in Moresby, Madang, and perhaps Milne Bay to check for a pulse on the MPA project there. When last in Alotau, our former project partners were closing shop and word was that UNDP was stepping in to carry on. Well, 4 months have passed and nary a word from UNDP, so this is a reality check for how CORAL will proceed in PNG moving forward. Bryan has promised to try to send a few dispatches and photos from the field, but I know how time tends to slip away with our crazy field schedules, and internet access (even in the "cities") can be spotty. We'll see what news we might get.

February 12, 1809

When asked to name a hero or individual who inspired our career paths, many of us ocean science-types might rattle off the usual suspects like Jacques Cousteau (I watched all of his TV programs as a child) or Ed "Doc" Rickets (who I first discovered through Steinbeck’s Cannery Row). But first on my inspirational list of ocean scientists will always be Charles Darwin, whose 198th birthday I’m remembering on Monday, February 12, 2007.

Darwin may never have self-identified as an ocean scientist, but I’m pretty sure his nearly five years at sea aboard the Beagle (apparently sea sick most of the way) makes him more than just an honorary member of the club. In addition to his facination with finches, tortoises, iguanas and all the other amazing endemics of the Galapagos, one of his greatest passions was barnacles. In fact he spent eight-years studying them, even setting aside his writings on natural selection, until he satisfied his curiosity.

Darwin also turned his rapacious mind to figuring out how coral atolls formed. He surmised, correctly, that tropical coral atoll rings are the remains of what was once coral-fringed land. The now empty center was an island of rock that subsided below the ocean surface, all this a good century ahead of plate tectonics being embraced as scientific fact. Not too shabby for a sea sick victorian.
I've had a lifetime admiration and facination with Charles Darwin. He was a master of observation, quiet, reserved (some would argue a recluse) yet his life has fundamentally redefined how we view ourselves. My life and interests have been largely shaped by wanting to know the man while exploring the depth and subtleties of his ideas. On a trip to London in the late 80's, I visited Westminster Abbey, Darwin's final resting place, and laid flowers atop his grave. It's right in the middle of the north choir aisle and receives heavy foot traffic daily. His gravestone is part of the floor, so it's easy to miss since most visitors to the Abbey are looking up at its grand windows and arches. I stepped back and watched as people paused, noticing the flowers, and realizing Darwin was under foot.

On another UK visit in 1990, I spent Thanksgiving Day on an adventure by train from London to County Kent, Darwin's home in life. After two trains, a bus, then a cab, I arrived in Downe. I still have my journal from that trip and thought I'd share a bit:

County Kent, Borough Bromley, Village Downe–It's easy to see why Darwin chose to live here rather than London. This village moves to the tickings of a much slower clock. It's amazingly quaint here... small gnarled tree and circular bench in village center, St. Mary's Church and graveyard, George & the Dragon pub, combination post office/general store, the Darwin Pub, and a smattering of terribly English cottage homes. This is a rolling and lush stretch of country. Lots of birds, horses, and the smell of horse shit. Took a footpath off the road to Downe House (Darwin's home) that led me to two horses wearing flannel coats. I called one over, but after a pat on the nose he realized "No food here," and wandered off. Lots of plants I don't know and birds I dont know. But did recognize a fig tree full of fruit.


Arrived at Downe House before hours, but the curator let me in early. After paying my admission, I found myself standing in Darwin's study. The room was staged to replicate how Darwin had left it... an organized clutter of glass jars, books, bones, his walking stick, stones and shells, and odd victorian brick-a-brack. My favorite being the copper bedpan on the floor behind a wicker partition (this was afterall a pre-plumbing home). The curator, Solene Morris, joined me and was eager to tell me all I wanted to know. I spent two hours hearing about everything from her research thesis (Cretaceous mollusks) to the financial state and disrepair of Downe House. Apparently Downe House was not always the quiet sanctuary I thought it was for Darwin. At one time there were seven children banging about. Also, workers were almost always making modifications and additions to the house while the Big "D" was in residence.

Neat little details of the study were interesting to note. The pads on the arms of Darwin's chair were worn through. Another chair in his study, near a window, was turned in a rather odd angle to the room. It faced away from all the other chairs. I was told that Darwin preferred to write sitting in this chair with his back to the window. If the chair was turned towards the other seats, a shadow from the wing of his chair shaded his right side, and being right-handed, his writing paper too. After chatting forever, I wandered outside to the back yard and strolled the sandwalk, Darwin's favorite daily footpath. This man had some money, to be sure, as this "cottage" home was more manor to my eyes. There's something hard to define but very tangible about being in touch with history. And I mean physical touch. To touch Darwin's chair, his walking cane, or walk his favorite footpath and know it's only time that separates you from the person. It will be hard to top this British thanks giving.

But I did get to top it. In 1992 on my last UK trip (this time with my friend Dennis–also a Darwin fan) I payed another visit to Downe House. I had gotten along so well with the curator on the previous visit that she made a standing offer should I ever be in Kent and need a place to stay, then ring her up. Well I was, and I did. But instead of staying with her family in the carriage house, Solene set us up with rooms in Downe House.

That night, Solene served up a very good and very English dinner of roast beef with root vegetables, and mustard served in an heirloom mustard pot. Before turning in, she gave us a behind the scenes tour of the upstairs rooms in Downe House. Some were off limits and in severe disprepair with leaking roofs and sagging floors. But in an open room, she pointed out a closet where the initials HED were carved into a shelf. This would be Henrietta Emma Darwin, one of his daughters. I traced over the initials, a charming moment of Darwin's family life frozen in time beneath my finger tip and lost but for an observant and dedicated curator.

While none of this Darwinalia likely resonates with anyone other than myself, I throw it out there nonetheless. It's a bit of personal backstory to what got me inspired to do what I do. And it's not a bad thing to take one day a year to acknowledge your inspiration. Happy Darwin Day!

Crap. Pure, Unadulterated Crap.

I swear I’ll give the climate change issue a rest, but I need to vent my spleen just a bit more. So I’m strolling through Barnes and Noble this last weekend and spot a cute book cover depicting a penguin sporting a lei. The title? A Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming. The back cover proclaims the book as a provocative, entertaining, and well-documented expose of some of the most shamelessly politicized pseudo-science we are likely to see in our relatively cool lifetimes. Ah, I stumbled across a climate change denier.

I don’t know of the author, nor do I really care to. But this is the latest release from the same publishers who have brought us A Politically Incorrect Guide to Evolution (basically dressed-up creationist clap-trap) and A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (a book you just know is balanced as it features a masked gunman on the cover.) What’s next? A Politically Incorrect Guide to the Holocaust? I mean, how do these people sleep at night?

A fellow associated with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) pens the global warming book. An alleged think-tank, their website proclaims Advancing Liberty and Public Policy Research. Rather than spending time in ad hominem attack on the author, I’d prefer to look at the agency he represents. So I spent some time surfing the Web and found a strong correlation of criticism of CEI, nicely collected on Wikipedia.

According to SourceWatch (a collaborative project documenting the PR and propaganda activities of public relations firms and public relations professionals engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy) CEI is an "ideologically-driven, well-funded front for corporations opposed to safety and environmental regulations that affect the way they do business"

In May 2006, CEI released a controversial ad campaign featuring two separate television commercials arguing that global warming is not a problem. The commercials used the tagline "Carbon Dioxide - They call it pollution; We call it life." The ad cited two Science articles to support its claims. However, the editor for Science stated that the ad "misrepresents the conclusions of the two cited Science papers... by selective referencing". The author of the articles, Curt Davis, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said CEI was misrepresenting his previous research to back their claims. "These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate," he said.

Confuse and mislead the public? Not an institute dedicated to Advancing Liberty and Public Policy Research.

Perhaps individuals and funders associated with CEI deserve closer inspection. Steven Milloy, a CEI Adjunct Scholar, is also a Fox News reporter who has spent considerable energy in attempts to debunk what he alleges to be false claims regarding global warming, DDT, breast implants, passive smoking, ozone depletion, and Mad Cow Disease among other topics. Milloy has written extensively on global warming and other topics while receiving undisclosed funding from ExxonMobil. In fact, there’s quite an interesting litany of Big Petroleum, Big Industry and Big Tobacco names listed as funders:

Amoco Foundation, Inc.
Ford Motor Company Fund
Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
Precision Valve Corporation (the world’s largest producer of aerosol product valves)
and Texaco, Inc., among others.

ExxonMobil Corporation, a well-documented funder of climate change deniers and others who use Big Tobacco-like disinformation tactics, was a major donor to CEI, with over $2 million in contributions between 1998 and 2005. In 2002 the company gave $405,000; in 2004 it gave CEI $180,000 that was earmarked for "global climate change and global climate change outreach." I'm hoping hell has a particularly foul ring for the avaricious, money-grubbing execs behind this.

But despite the evidence that A Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming is clearly corporate propaganda manufactured for the express purpose of spreading disinformation, I say read what you choose. No book-burner here. I just wish that books came with a variation on those nutritional labels ubiquitous on food packaging. That way, less skeptically inclined readers can know right away they are holding the literary equivalent of a Twinkie.

Coral and Climate? Climate and Coral?

So I got an entertaining email asking why I've suddenly climbed up on top of a climate soap box. Isn't this a coral reef-related blog?

Well, consider the unfortunate trifecta of climate-coral connections: rising sea levels, increased sea surface temperatures, and ocean acidification. The first two are pretty straight forward, but the third needs some explaining. First, there's glacial and polar ice melt resulting in sea levels rising at a rate faster than corals can keep pace. Coral grows slowly and needs to remain near the surface for optimum growth. And let's not forget that rising sea levels are also pretty damn threatening to coastal areas and island nations as well.

Next, there's increased sea surface temperatures in tropical and subtropical waters. Just a few degrees outside of optimum temperatures of 20 to 32 degrees Celsius and corals become stressed and prone to bleaching.

Finally, there's the somewhat more complicated process of ocean acidification. Here’s my shot at a basic explanation (and apologies for the gross oversimplification.) Carbon dioxide (CO2)–a byproduct of burning trees, grasslands and fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas–naturally dissolves in seawater to form carbonic acid, and a few other compounds, importantly for this discussion carbonate. If you've ever heard someone refer to the ocean as a carbon sink, it's this ability of seawater to absorb carbon to which they are referring. A lot of dissolved CO2 in seawater is also consumed by marine photosynthetic organisms like phytoplankton, but that's a story for another time.

Now, carbonate combines with calcium in the seawater to form things like calcium carbonate and is in turn used by marine organisms to build things like shells and in the case of coral, the calcium carbonate hard part of the reef.

The problem comes when the atmospheric CO2 concentrations increase, leading to the so-called greenhouse effect. The additional CO2 in the ocean means more carbonic acid which makes seawater more acidic and reduces the availability of carbonate. With less available carbonate, the water becomes less saturated with the important compounds used in constructing things like coral reefs.

Think of it this way. If you’re a coral polyp (the soft anemone-like animal that builds the reefs) as the carbon dioxide concentrations increase and oceans become more acidic, your rate of construction (calcification) and the quality of your building (your own tiny portion of the reef and the reef as a whole) will go down. Obviously, this is not so great for you. It is also not so great for your neighborhood, in this case, the coral reef ecosystem in which you live. As the problem becomes too severe, the reef may begin to erode faster than it can be built.

Now combine the other two climatic insults of sea levels and sea surface temperatures rising and that's a lot of stress on an ecosystem.

So yes, Virginia... climate issues concern biodiversity conservationists for a variety of reasons.

Quick... Turn Off Your Computer Now!

In the ‘tis better to light a candle than curse the dark frame of mind, I thought I should temper my tirades. Complaining is easy. Taking action is where it all matters. So don’t just sit there at your computer… do something. And here are some great somethings, prepared by the Global and Regional Air and Energy Program, Environmental Defense.

And before you start saying, "Household changes have no effect, it’s big businesses that need to change” you’re only half right. Right now the U.S. releases about 40,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per person each year. If we can reduce energy use enough to lower greenhouse gas emissions by about 2% a year, in ten years we will "lose" about 7000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per person.

So make some changes:

HOME APPLIANCES
Run your dishwasher only with a full load. Use the energy-saving setting to dry the dishes. Don't use heat when drying.

Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot.

Turn down your water heater thermostat; 120 degrees is usually hot enough.

HOME HEATING AND COOLING
Don't overheat or overcool rooms. Adjust your thermostat (lower in winter, higher in summer).

Clean or replace air filters as recommended. Cleaning a dirty air conditioner filter can save 5% of the energy used.

SMALL INVESTMENTS THAT PAY OFF
Buy energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for your most-used lights.

Wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket (but only if the water heater is over 5 years old and has no internal insulation).

Install low-flow shower heads to use less hot water.

Caulk and weatherstrip around doors and windows to plug air leaks.

Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to find out where your home is poorly insulated or energy-inefficient.

GETTING AROUND
Whenever possible, walk, bike, carpool or use mass transit.

When you buy a car, choose one that gets good gas mileage.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
Reduce waste: Buy minimally packaged goods; choose reusable products over disposable ones; recycle.

If your car has an air conditioner, make sure its coolant is recycled whenever you have it serviced.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS
Insulate your walls and ceilings; this can save about 25% of home heating bills.

If you need to replace your windows, install the best energy-saving models.

Plant trees next to your home and paint your home a light color if you live in a warm climate, or a dark color in a cold climate.

As you replace home appliances, select the most energy-efficient models.

SCHOOLS, BUSINESS, AND COMMUNITIES
Reduce waste and promote energy-efficient measures at your school or workplace.

Work in your community to set up recycling programs.

Flex your political muscle! Be informed about environmental issues. Keep track of candidates' voting records and write or call to express concerns.

Is It Getting Hot In Here... Or Is It Just Me?

Stroll with me and see if you notice a trend here...

A 21-page report for policy makers was released this week in Paris. Formed by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization, a group of climate experts unanimously linked–with 90 percent certainty–the increase of average global temperatures since the mid-20th century to the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The evidence for warming having happened on the planet is unequivocal, said U.S. government scientist Susan Solomon, who also is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We can see that in rising air temperatures, we can see it in changes in snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. We can see it in global sea rise. It's unequivocal, she said.

Did the Bush Administration take note? Oh mais oui!

Administration officials at a news conference praised the report today acknowledging they would certainly study the report and take recommendations seriously. Yet almost in the same breath, the Administration expressed continued opposition to mandatory reductions in heat-trapping greenhouse gases and warned against unintended consequences–including job losses–that might result if the government requires economy-wide caps on carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. But the American people were assured that the Administration would take the report seriously.


On December 05, 2006, a blue ribbon panel co-chaired by James A. Baker, III, released The Iraq Study Group Report–The Way Forward: A New Approach. In 160 succinct pages, the report outlines what seems to be apparent to the average sentient observer: the US policy in Iraq is not working. The report lays out several recommendations. The Administration greeted the report with praise, and President Bush, a copy of the report in-hand, assured the American people he would study the report. Thirty-six days later, Bush addressed the nation to announce a US troop surge of 20,000 additional soldiers.


On September 20, 2004, another blue ribbon panel of ocean science and policy experts–the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy–fulfilled its mandate to submit recommendations for a coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy to the President and Congress. The Commission's final report, An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century, contains 212 recommendations addressing all aspects of ocean and coastal policy. The 16 members of the Commission called on the President to take decisive, immediate action to carry out these recommendations, which would halt the steady decline of our nation's oceans and coasts.

In response to the Commission's findings and recommendations, the President issued an executive order establishing another Committee on Ocean Policy to study the recommendations.


More study? That's strange, particularly given that just 15 months earlier in June 2003, still another blue ribbon panel of experts from the Pew Oceans Commission released their independent report, America's Living Oceans: Charting a Course for Sea Change, which came to exactly the same conclusions as the US Commission on Ocean Policy's report.

America's oceans are in crisis and the stakes could not be higher, begins the Executive Summary. This nation must decide how it will choose to meet the crisis in our oceans. Fundamentally, this is not a decision about us. It is about our children, and actions we must take to bequeath them thriving oceans. These changes in our perspectives must be reflected in a reformed US ocean policy.

James Connaughton, then top White House environmental adviser, said on Capitol Hill, The Bush administration will act with force on a very high level on these issues. Three years later, Pew Commission chair, Leon Panetta, gave them a D- for how it's handled ocean issues.

So you might forgive my skepticism today with all the posturing by the Administration to actually take the climate report seriously. I'm anxious to be proven wrong, but I suspect poor study habits.

Culling The Herd

When it comes to supporting ocean conservation, ocean science, and strategies to stop global climate change, it's hard to know who among the early slate of presidential contenders is either here or there–or anywhere. So I decided to see for myself where they sit on issues important to the marine conservation community.

But getting answers out of public figures is no easy task. And I'm a busy man with no congressional pages to task with digging through reams of public records for inklings of ocean awareness. So I decided on a far less immediate, very unscientific (and probably futile) means of getting to the marrow of the matter.

I sent the following identical email to either the campaign headquarters or beltway offices (or both) of 10 of the early prospects:

Hello...
Can you send or direct me to [candidates name's] position or public record regarding ocean policy, ocean science-research-education, US fisheries, and climate change?
Much appreciated!

Since the ocean observes no political affiliation, I decided to be bipartisan in my query and forwarded emails to the following 2008 early presidential hopefuls (where available, I've linked current congressional members scorecard from the League of Conservation Voters):

Representative Dennis Kucinich
Senator John McCain
Governor Tom Vilsack
former Governor Mitt Romney
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Senator Barack Obama
Senator Sam Brownback
Senator Joseph Biden
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani
and former Senator John Edwards

I'll keep you posted as to any responses.