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In his book, "Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming" (Island Press, 2009), University of California, Berkeley, biologist Anthony Barnosky. says that because of climate change, wilderness left to its own will no longer look like the natural areas we see today.

Our conservation strategies must be rethought, he adds, because business-as-usual will not preserve all the aspects of nature we have come to know, love and respect.

Setting aside preserves, for example, puts animals and plants in a bind: As global warming makes their current habitats unsuitable, surrounding human development prevents them from moving to more hospitable places. The alternative, assisted migration, smacks of creating wild zoos - quasi-natural areas like the dinosaur wonderland portrayed in the book and movie "Jurassic Park."

"The new twist in preserving nature is that we might have to come up with a separate but equal system, where we actively set aside some tracts of land as wildlands where people can experience this feeling of 'wilderness,' but recognize that the species that live in those places and the landscape are not going to be the species and landscape we are used to," he says. "Our kids are going to see very different things in those kinds of places than we do."

Warming already altering patterns of migration

Barnosky describes in his book how global warming is already causing shifts in the ranges of animals and plants, disrupting migrations and spawning, and stressing animals confined to parks and reserves.

While ecosystem change and extinction are normal, Barnosky reminds us that past climate change, such as cooling at the beginning of glacial periods and warming with the onset of interglacial periods, took place over thousands of years.

The current warming is happening faster, by a factor of about 10.

Global warming multiplies impacts of human activities

Global warming comes on top of many other environmental impacts that have been stressing the environment, Barnosky notes in his book. He wrote "Heatstroke," in part, because he "wanted to raise awareness that global warming is not just an add-on consequence as far as impacts on ecosystems and nature are concerned.

We are all aware of habitat fragmentation, invasive species, growing human populations, and the tradeoff between resources needed to sustain us versus resources to sustain other species.

People tend to think those are the big problems, and that global warming is going to heat things up a bit.

"In reality, global warming, as far as how it is going to change nature, is as big or bigger a problem than all of those other four, and especially when you put it together with all of the other four.

There are feedbacks that make everything much more severe. It is like multiplying rather than adding everything up."

Solutions to protect both species and wilderness

Wilderness must be protected, he says, if for no other reason than that it acts as a canary in a coal mine, "a barometer of how healthy the Earth actually is."

But imperiled species must also be protected as biodiversity resources, he adds, even if this requires assisted migration of not only the endangered species, but also the plants and animals these species interact with in their ecosystem.

One alternative that some scientists have put forward is Pleistocene rewilding, a wild idea to re-establish the large "megafauna" that dominated Earth during the planet's last major bout with global climate change, the period of on-and-off glaciation that took place between 2 million and 10,000 years ago.

Read more details about Barnosky and Heatstroke

California tops the list of U.S. states employing energy efficiency as the "first fuel" to grow their economies while meeting electricity demand, combating global warming, and contributing to U.S. energy security, according to a new report released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The 2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard rated and ranked state-level action on model energy efficiency policies, programs, and practices.

With California claiming the number one ranking, Idaho rated as the "most improved" state since ACEEE's first state scorecard report graded state action through 2006.

The 2008 report is ACEEE's latest edition in a periodic analysis of state-by-state ranking on the adoption and implementation of energy efficiency policies, which aims to recognize leadership among the states and identify best practices. The report ranks states on a broad array of energy efficiency policy initiatives, including:

• Utility-sector and public benefits efficiency programs and policies
• Transportation and land use policies
• Building energy codes
• Combined heat and power (CHP)
• Appliance efficiency standards
• Energy efficiency in public buildings and fleets
• Research, development, and deployment (RD&D)
• Financial incentives for efficient technologies

The 2008 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard report is available for free download at www.aceee.org/pubs/e086.htm or a hard copy can be purchased for $30 plus $5 postage and handling from ACEEE Publications, 529 14th St, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20045, phone: 202-507-4000, fax: 202-429-2248, e-mail: aceee_publications@aceee.org.

Renewable energy is a high priority for President Elect Obama.  His jobs program emphasizes rebuilding the infrastructure, including roads and bridges, schools and weatherizing homes.  This slideshow synthesizes the energy priorities established by Obama during his campaign and in the days of the transition. Renewable energies, including energy efficiency figure prominently in his energy plan.

MISSISSIPPI BARGE TRAFFIC DOWN YET AGAIN IN 2007 — 18-Year Downward Trend Undercuts Congressional Plan to Build Bigger Locks

Barge traffic on the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway continued an 18-year downward trend through 2007, according to the latest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers figures compiled and released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Despite this long, steep decline in demand for barge transportation, Congress brushed aside a veto to make expansion of the lock system on these rivers one of the centerpieces of its new Water Resources Development Act.

The question now is whether Congress funds the $2 billion lock expansion plan that it authorized. The Water Resources Development Act authorized some 940 projects that would cost a total of approximately $23 billion to complete. The Upper Mississippi Lock project is the second largest project in that bill, behind the multi-year Everglades “restoration” effort.

Large, cumulative and sustained decreases in barge traffic have occurred at every Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway lock, with the most heavily utilized locks experiencing an average 36 percent traffic reduction since the Corps and its boosters began advocating for lock expansion back in the early 1990s. This downward trend is likely to continue as the leading barge line forecasts even lower grain traffic in coming years; barge demand in the region consists primarily of grain and other agricultural products.

“Traffic is so sparse that the Corps does not even bother to schedule the barges to minimize congestion,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “The Upper Mississippi lock expansion is the poster child for pork barrel myopia in Congress.”

This project has been steeped in controversy since 2000, when the Corps’ own lead economist on the project, Dr. Donald Sweeney, filed an explosive whistleblower disclosure documenting how top Corps commanders had grossly manipulated the cost-benefit study used to justify the project. This scandal triggered a battle about how to “reform the Corps” which was a major factor in holding up subsequent Water Resource Development Acts until late 2007.

Nonetheless, the Corps ultimately endorsed the lock expansion but, in response to scathing critiques from the National Academies of Science and other authorities, promised to correct its economic models to eliminate systematic biases favoring construction. Its revised study on the Upper Mississippi project is still not completed.

“When it comes to public works, Congress and the Corps are two addicts who feed off each other,” added Ruch, whose organization represented Dr. Sweeney. “As we did with military base closures where it was recognized that corrosive parochial politics could not be controlled, we need an independent national commission to rank our infrastructure priorities.”

SOURCE:

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Date: January 15, 2008
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

New York's Renewable Energy Task Force recently announced 16 recommendations as part of a roadmap to significantly increase renewable energy generation in New York. These recommendations include more solar energy production, funding the state's program to get 25 percent of New York's electricity from renewable energy by 2013, and new business incentives targeted to attract renewable energy producers and expand the state's "green collar" workforce.

The Renewable Energy Task Force was charged with identifying barriers to increased production of renewable energy, recommending policies and financial incentives to overcome those barriers, and identifying future market areas where additional research and development investment is necessary.

Recommendations Highlights

Significant recommendations of the task force's first report include:

• Developing eight times more solar photovoltaic energy generation in New York--more than 100 megawatts by 2011;
• Increasing the renewable energy supply in New York State to meet 25 percent of electricity demand by 2013, and fully funding the Renewable Portfolio Standard to make it happen;
• Developing new business incentives to attract renewable energy technology companies to New York in order to build industry clusters in solar, wind, biomass and other technical areas;
• Changing the law to allow and encourage New York companies to produce their own renewable energy "on site" and deliver excess power back to the energy grid known as "net metering;"
• Developing and supporting a "green collar" workforce of skilled labor to support renewable energy technology companies by coordinating training programs, expanding and enhancing those programs as necessary, and making training opportunities available to residents of disadvantaged communities, minority- and women-owned companies, and other small businesses.

Renewables Create Jobs

The task force set forth key data throughout the report demonstrating that investment in renewable energy creates jobs and increases tax revenues. Some examples include:

• Up to 43,000 new jobs in New York could be created by the renewable energy production needed to meet the requirement that 25 percent of New York's electricity come from renewable sources.
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency industries could create up to 40 million jobs and generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue in the United States by 2030-a four-fold increase over current revenues.
• Over the next 20 years, $1 billion in economic benefits are expected to result from the roughly $500 million that New York has so far committed in renewable energy funding through the Renewable Portfolio Standard-a 100 percent return on investment, not counting economic spillover, multiplier effects, and environmental quality-of-life gains from renewable energy production.

Taking immediate action on the task force's recommendations, Paul Tonko, President and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), indicated that NYSERDA would immediately invest $4 million in green collar workforce initiatives, on top of the $2 million in this year's Executive Budget and would also establish a Wind Energy Research and Testing Center to develop new technologies and provide workforce training.

DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said: "Clean energy is crucial on so many fronts: energy conservation, pollution reduction, combating climate change, and developing green businesses and jobs, just for starters. The task force's recommendations will continue our leadership on those issues. And, importantly, they will establish a roadmap to stimulate renewable energy development in a way that is real and tangible."

About the Renewable Energy Task Force

Composed of 20 members, the Renewable Energy Task Force represents a diverse array of stakeholders in the renewable energy field, including the renewable energy and alternative fuel industries, environmental and agricultural communities, academia, public utilities, local and state government entities, and experts in energy policy, green building construction and economic development.

In September 2007, the task force held a public meeting in New York City to release its preliminary findings. The findings were based on recommendations developed by numerous task force subcommittees and vetted using the following criteria: what would generate the most renewable energy; what would have the most environmental benefit; and what would least impact ratepayers, taxpayers and consumers financially.

The details of the task force's first report were reached by a consensus of all of its members. Its final report is due in December 2008.