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The Environment

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Changes in Total Global Emissions Since 2000 and 2010

The last four posts focused on countries with the highest CO2 emissions as a percent of global CO2 emissions: total emissions per country, per capita emissions, changes in emissions since 2000, and the decoupling of emissions from economic growth. This post will look at global trends in CO2 emissions since 2000 and 2010.

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Per capita CO2 emissions of countries with the highest emissions in the world

The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)  is a joint project of the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency which estimates emissions of all greenhouse gases (GHGs), air pollutants and aerosols. The latest EDGAR report is a treasure trove  of greenhouse gas emissions data…

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Countries with the Highest CO2 Emissions: Percent of Global Total

This series of posts will focus on countries with the highest CO2 emissions: China, the U.S., India, Russia, Japan, Iran, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Canada, and South Korea. First, the percent of total global CO2 emissions for each country

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Politics and Climate Change: The Current Situation

Climate change and the environment were simply non-factors in this year’s election - no surprise, given that polls have repeatedly documented declining public concern about the environment. For example, in a recent Gallup poll “environmental quality” ranked 12th among issues that Americans worry about, after inflation, crime and violence, hunger and homelessness, the economy, healthcare affordability and availability, federal spending and the budget deficit, illegal immigration, drug use, the Social Security system, the possibility of terrorist attacks, and the availability and affordability of energy. That’s a lot of competition for scarce resources.

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Moving Species to Save the Biosphere: An Update

By 2023, US Fish and Wildlife and other US agencies had adopted a wildlife management framework called Resist-Accept-Direct, or RAD. The RAD framework allows natural resource managers the option to actively shape “change in ecosystem composition, structure, processes, or function toward preferred new conditions” (Schuurman et al, 2022). That option allows moving species outside their historic range, to benefit the receiving ecosystem, the migrating species, or both.

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Some Tips for Living in a Warmer World

So what does that mean for humans and the planet? Some predictions:  unpredictable weather, extreme heatwaves,  heat stressed cities, increased wildfires, severe droughts, water scarcity, increased frequency, intensity and/or amount of heavy rain and flooding, loss of species/mass extinctions, deforestation, lower crop yields, reduced food security, and widespread economic hardship. These problems will vary by region and local preparedness. Worst off will be countries that lack the resources or political will to build resilience and adapt to the coming onslaught of troubles…What to do?

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Bias in Pictures: The Case of Intensive Agriculture

On the left we have intensive farming, clearly not the way to go. On the right, “agroecological agriculture”, clearly on the side of virtue and biodiversity. Now here’s another example of intensive agriculture…

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On the Happy Marriage of Sustainable Farming and Intensive Agriculture

“Intensive” is rarely used in a positive context for farming. People tend to associate it with low animal welfare, pollution and faceless corporations…But there are lots of different ways to farm intensively.” - - Emma Garnett, Five misused food and farming terms, from natural to intensive – and what they really mean, 2023

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First the Good News: The Quickening Pace of Global Decarbonization

Ok, so global CO2 emissions continue to rise, except for a pandemic-induced dip in 2020. But look closely at the above chart and you’ll see definite signs of progress, especially since 2010. For one, CO2 emissions are increasing more slowly than global population and GDP per capita. Two, energy intensity - a measure of energy inefficiency - has been declining steadily for over 30 years. And, three, there’s an accelerating decline in “carbon intensity”, which means…

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Commentary on Plans for Environmental Programs under a Second Trump Administration, Part III: Environmental Protection Agency

“Stop all grants to advocacy groups?” I’m assuming “advocacy groups” refers to environmental groups, many of which employ scientists and policy wonks with expertise directly relevant to EPA concerns…Why in the world should the EPA simply stop using these groups? It’s possible to have strong convictions about the environment (whether nature-or human-centered, whether left or right) and maintain a high level of professional integrity. Environmental activists can still provide high quality information and advice.  The EPA doesn’t have to embrace their ideological convictions to benefit from their input.  

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How Democrat and Republican Views on Environmental Policy have Changed over The Last 30 Years

There was a time when Republicans embraced the cause of environmental protection. Think Progress noted that “some of the greatest conservationists ever to take the oath of office were Republicans.” Both Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists rated Richard Nixon one of the greenest president ever.  And we're not talking ancient history here: both Presidents Bush supported cap and trade policies to reduce pollution…So what happened?

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Commentary on Plans for Environmental Programs under a Second Trump Administration, Part II: The Department of the Interior

The American public has largely come around to Carter’s vision of protecting huge swaths of wilderness in the US. For example, by 2017, 70% of American voters opposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This included 84% of Democrats, 64% of Independents, and 52% of Republicans. (Leiserowitz et al, 2017). However, Trump was not among those Republicans…on his last day of office, his administration “issued drilling leases on more than 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares) of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” (Reuters, January 19, 2021)

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Commentary on Plans for Environmental Programs under a Second Trump Administration, Part I:  The USDA

Excerpt from Plan for Trump Administration: “The next Administration should champion the elimination of the Conservation Reserve Program…The USDA should work with Congress to eliminate this overbroad program.”

Comment:  Note that the Conservation Reserve program, established during the Reagan administration, already targets highly erodible land and areas with “significant adverse water quality, wildlife habitat, or other natural resource impacts related to activities of agricultural production”.  Those are specific and concrete environmental harms – not overly broad at all.

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Politics and the Environment, Part IV: Plans for the Department of Agriculture under a Second Trump Administration

From Chapter 10 of Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise , a project led by the Heritage Foundation that outlines policy goals for a second Trump term: “For a conservative USDA to become a reality, and for it to stay on course with the mission as outlined, the White House must strongly support these reforms and install strong USDA leaders… There would be strong opposition from environmental groups and others who want the federal government to transform American agriculture to meet their ideological objectives.”

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Politics and the Environment, Part III: Plans for Federal Lands and the Endangered Species Act under a Second Trump Administration

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise is a project led by the Heritage Foundation that outlines policy goals for a second Trump term. William Perry Pendley is the author of Chapter 16: Department of the Interior. Pendley was appointed to deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2019 and later served in an unofficial capacity as acting director of the BLM for the remainder of the Trump administration. My intention for this series of posts is purely informational, so for now I’m keeping my opinions to myself.

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