Why Death Valley and the Pacific Northwest are so hot right now

The West Coast is burning up. Death Valley’s average temperature in July –107.4 degrees Fahrenheit — was the hottest on record, and cities like Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Palm Springs and Phoenix have reached record scorching temps over the past few weeks, too. Meanwhile, wildfires are raging north of the border in British Columbia and Cascade Mountains.

Twenty Mule Team Canyon in Death Valley, California. 

Climate change might be tipping records. “A few of our temperature records would not have been broken with this heat wave,” Philip Mote, a climate scientist at Oregon State University, said. “If you took this specific meteorological condition and then dialed back the greenhouse gases to what they were 50 years ago, it would be a little bit cooler. Portland instead of being 103 yesterday might’ve only been 101.” Weather experts shared the sentiment that climate change’s contribution to an event like this “might be a degree or two.”

Without global warming, there would still be a heat wave, just probably not a record-setting one.

Read the PBS Newshour story by Roni  Dengler - “Why Death Valley and the Pacific Northwest are so hot right now.”

Thanks, climate change: heat waves will keep on grounding planes

Last month, Phoenix enduring a blistering heat wave, with temperatures so high that airport officials had to cancel dozens of flights. The reason was two-fold. First off, some jet engines risk catching on fire in extreme heat. And when air gets hot, it expands and becomes less dense—so an airplane’s wings can’t generate enough lift to get off the ground. Planes either need to speed up during take-off or use a longer runway.

Climate change is keeping places on the ground.

But Phoenix’s flight delays aren’t a one-off event. As the Earth’s climate undergoes a 1 to 3 degree Celsius warming over the next half-century, extreme heat waves will hit more frequently. Some of these heat waves will hit airports with short runways. Forget about rain delays or missing flight crews. At places like Washington’s Reagan National Airport, New York’s LaGuardia Airport, and Dubai International, the real trouble will come during heat waves.

During the hottest part of the day, 10 to 30 percent of planes will have to offload cargo or people, according to a new study by graduate student Ethan Coffell and climate scientist Radley Horton at Columbia University. “This study shined a light on a potential vulnerability,” Horton says. “A lot of airplanes at full capacity are ill-equipped to take off on some of the world’s runways when temperatures get really high.”

Read Erkic Niilner’s Wired story -  ”Thanks, climate change: heat waves will keep on grounding planes.”

Paul Hawken discusses the world's climate future

Watch Project Drawdown Founder Paul Hawken shares the realistic, optimistic and empowering view of our climate future offered by drawdown solutions, and the important role of the business community in actualizing this future in Phoenix at GreenBiz 16.

Nestle's bid to bottle public water raises much ire

Cascade Locks - its water has
been at the heart of much debate

It’s easy to hate Nestle’s bottled water business.

The multinational behemoth recently fought a case at the Maine Supreme Court to continue filling Poland Spring bottles — at the same rate the locals pay for tap water. Environmental groups and locals had challenged whether the water company had the authority to sign a 25-year, 603,000 gallon/day contract for public water. The groups lost.

Then the company announced it would build a bottled water facility in Phoenix, of all places, which prompted local outcry and a change.org petition to get Nestle out of the desert city, which pipes nearly all its water from the Colorado River. Ironically, Lake Mead, one of the Colorado’s largest reservoirs serving Phoenix, recently hit its lowest point ever, another marker in the Western United States’ multi-year drought.

It’s this same drought that catalyzed people in Cascade Locks, Oregon to kick Nestle out. After nearly a decade of fighting, under three different gubernatorial administrations, Nestle officially is not allowed to pipe water from the Columbia River Gorge or build a bottling plant in Cascade Locks, after residents successfully initiated a ballot measure prohibiting the sale or transport of water for bottling purposes.

“Nestle can out-lawyer you every time. They have more money than god,” Julia DeGraw, a senior campaigner with Food and Water Watch, told ThinkProgress. “When you take the time to educate voters, there isn’t an amount of money that Nestle can spend to convince them that water isn’t important.” Cascade Locks’ ballot initiative is likely the first time that a municipality has enacted legislation to stop the bottled water phenomenon literally at the source.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “The Battle Over Public Drinking Water Has Just Begun.”

Roulac sees half the solution to climate change as under our feet

T

John W. Roulac

o the leadership at Greenpeace, Sierra Club, 350.org, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and all other climate groups:

Your organizations have worked very hard, collectively, to reduce world reliance on carbon-centric oil, gas and coal. Thanks to your work to reduce pollution, we certainly have a healthier planet. High praise is in order for the success of your valiant efforts in the face of corrupt vested interests.

Yet I, along with many others, must still ask: Will your plan win the race against time to avert climate chaos? Anyone paying close attention can see that, even if the world doubles the rate at which it’s adopting wind, solar, bike lanes, electric cars and conservation, the excess carbon in our atmosphere and seas will still lead to intense climate chaos. For just one example, the temperature in Phoenix, Arizona, recently reached 117°.

Read John W. Roulac’s EcoWatch story - “Why Are Climate Groups Only Focused on 50% of the Solution?”.