California's Climate Change Law (AB 32), Which Puts A Price On Carbon Emissions And Creates A Cap-and-trade

The sex of a sea turtle hatching is determined by temperature. Nests incubated at cooler temperatures produce more males, while nests incubated at warmer temperatures produce more females.

This could be a problem with climate change. As global temperatures rise, nests will be incubated at higher temperatures, producing fewer males. As this study found, climate change could lead to turtle nests with few to no males, skewing sex ratios and endangering the persistence of sea turtle populations. As the authors note:

“[O]nce incubation temperatures are 35°C, there are almost no more males produced (1 per 50 000 eggs laid)... As turtles return to the rough neighbourhood of their natal breeding grounds, it seems likely that for populations already producing more than 80% females, there will be a real extinction risk if they continue to nest at the same time of year and conditions warm by a few degrees.” 

But the bigger issue may be the increasing number of unviable eggs with rising temperatures. As the authors claim:

“[T]he primary concern in scenarios of climate change and rising incubation temperatures [is]... the high hatchling mortality in excessively warm nests...While climate warming still poses a threat to sea turtles, it is not the skewed sex ratios per se that will threaten population survival but rather higher mortality within clutches.”

Accessibility remoteness index of Australia

Another graph from Theda Skocpol's analysis of why the 2009 Cap and Trade bill failed, this one looking at increasing political polarization between the Democrats and the GOP from the 1970s on.

*The LCV (League of Conservation Voters) average reflects LCV scores given to lawmwakers, which are based on their votes on important environmental legislation. The higher the score the more "pro-environment" the lawmaker.

The environmental blog Mongabay.com created a series of graphs from the IUCN Red List, which evaluates the conservation status of plant and animal species and lists those that are under threat. I'll be posting a series of them from different groups.

The first is the conservation status of herps, or reptiles and amphibians.

Yes, the eastern US is frigid. Yes, the average global temperature is warmer than average.

Temperature anomalies on December 29, 2017

Based on a survey of 144 climate change economists performed by the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law, response to: "Placing a “price on carbon” through a tax or cap‐and‐trade system will increase incentives for energy efficiency and the development of lower carbon energy production."

Other interesting results:

84% agreed or strongly agreed that “the environmental effects of greenhouse gas emissions... create significant risks to important sectors of the United States and global economies.”

91.6% preferred or strongly preferred “market‐based mechanisms, such as a carbon tax or cap‐and‐trade system” over command‐and‐control regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The cost of offshore wind in America is dropping, from 24¢/kWh for the operational Block Island wind farm, to 13¢/kWH for two proposed projects in MD, to an expected 10¢/kWh for two projects in MA. But German offshore wind is only 5¢/kWh. Why is German offshore wind so cheap, and how can US offshore achieve those prices and compte with natural gas (~7¢/kWh).

The biggest factor is perceived risk by financial backers due to regulatory uncertainty. A clear national policy on offshore wind, and a national commitment to developing offshore wind resources, could drive those costs down.

Also increasing cost is the lack of a domestic supply chain and infrastructure. If the US invests in a domestic supply chain, including ports to service offshore wind (as is being done in New Bedford, MA), US offshore wind could become cost competitive with natural gas.

Original Article

Oyster reefs are in rough shape over much of the world, threatened by over-harvesting in combination with pressures from exotic species (including disease) and pollution. This means those coastal areas are losing the valuable ecosystem services, such as water filtration and protection from storm surges, oyster reefs provide.

Source:

Beck, M. W., Brumbaugh, R. D., Airoldi, L., Carranza, A., Coen, L. D., Crawford,

C.,…Guo, X. (2011). Oyster reefs at risk and recommendations for conservation,

restoration, and management. BioScience, 61(2), 107-116. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.2.5

From the Washington Post:

Map from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing how much electricity each state gets from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. Maine was the clear winner in 2011, getting 27 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources — a lot of it wind power and biomass. But Maine had a lot of renewable energy back in 2001, too. South Dakota and Iowa, at 21 percent and 17 percent, have seen far more impressive growth. Both of those states got almost none of their electricity from renewable sources a decade ago.