Speed Blogging IV
Submitted by Aguanomics Blog
- “The Amazonian rainforest is likely to suffer catastrophic damage… Up to 40 per cent of the rainforest will be lost if temperature rises are restricted to 2C, which most climatologists regard as the least that can be expected by 2050… A 3C rise is likely to result in 75 per cent of the forest disappearing and a 4C rise, regarded as the most likely increase this century unless greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced, will kill off 85 per cent of the forest.”
- “More than 100 levees in 16 states flunked maintenance inspections in the last two years and are so neglected that they could fail to stem a major flood, records from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers show. [snip] The corps will alert the Federal Emergency Management Agency to poorly maintained levees. If states and communities cannot certify to FEMA that those levees will handle a 100-year flood — one that has a 1% chance of hitting each year — owners of property behind them may have to buy flood insurance. ‘Many of the levee boards don’t have the funds to maintain them and really haven’t … for years,’” No insurance? Good. The article also has a list of the weak levees — 26/27 are in Sacramento.
- via FCRN: “Coca-Cola today released details of the carbon footprint of some of its most popular drinks [snip] The results reveal that a 330ml can of ‘Coca-Cola’ sold in Great Britain has a carbon footprint of 170 grams and the same sized can of ‘diet Coke’ or ‘Coke Zero’ has a footprint of 150 grams. A 330ml glass bottle of ‘Coca-Cola’ has a footprint of 360 grams. The research also revealed how packaging accounts for the largest portion of the drink’s carbon footprint, between 30 - 70%, depending on the type of container used. However, the research went on to highlight the importance of both using recycled content and of encouraging recycling post use. A combination of these two factors can decrease the overall carbon footprint of a product by up to 60%.”
- via FCRN: “In partnership with the Carbon Trust Cadbury has, for the first time, calculated the carbon footprint for milk chocolate and discovered that milk contributes to just over 60% of emissions.” That’s why I eat dark chocolate!
- “California’s water agency is for the first time including tribal input in the development of… the California Water Plan, which has been updated every five years since 1957. [snip] ‘We assumed that federal agencies were taking care of tribes and we found that is not always true,’ Cross said, adding that tribes unrecognized by the BIA often fall through the gaps and that other government entities typically don’t consider neighboring reservations in their water plans. ‘They drew a line around the Indian communities as though they didn’t exist.’”
- Pacific Institute study says: “Driven by global warming, the ocean is expected to rise 4.5 feet along California’s coastline by the end of the century, hitting San Francisco Bay the hardest of all…” Both SFO and OAK airports are going to be affected (ouch!). Buy a house that sits at elevation or floats!
- Pacific Institute also weights in on bottled water: “Bottled water is up to 2,000 times more energy-intensive than tap water, the study [PDF] found, and consumes the equivalent of 32 million to 54 million barrels of oil annually in the U.S., about one-third of 1 percent of the nation’s energy consumption. [snip] Bottled water consumption in the nation has been estimated at 33 billion liters a year, roughly half that of carbonated beverages. California’s share of that is roughly 12 percent or 4 billion liters… roughly 3,000 acre-feet,” which is nothing. If we want to make REAL progress on water use, let’s concentrate on the
usewaste of water on lawns and building markets for agricultural water.
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