Climate Change Report

There is so much happening in climate change activities I felt compelled to bring you up to date by a brief summary of recent events. First up is IPCC Report (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the United Nations organization of leading climate scientists around the world. This a big deal because the report is only issued when the group feels enough new information has been developed to warrant a public report (their last report was eight years ago). In November of 2o21 they offered their most recent report at their meeting of climate scientists who gathered in Glasgow to present their 6^th report over the last thirty years.

Their conclusion: Only drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions this decade can prevent us from raising global temperatures to a disastrous extent, the scientists have concluded.

The hundreds of climate scientists, thousands of research studies, eight years of work – building on more than three decades of research before that – have been boiled down in the past fortnight to a single message: we are running out of time to fix this problem.

Does this look like war damage from Ukraine? Think again. The photo is illustrating flood damage caused by Climate Change. More is expected.

 

The meeting produced scores of recommendations from dozens of technical experts. Here is one from the head man-The United Nations Secretary General: “greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”

The bad news about flooding, fires, and other climate-driven catastrophes are likely to get worse as our world continues to pump more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A new International Energy Agency analysis estimated that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions had risen by 6 percent in 2021 from the year before, to a record 36.3 billion tons. This, despite all the talk and (some) action in making wind and sun energy into electricity. The ongoing recovery from the Covid pandemic has meant more economic activity. Unfortunately, the business rebound required more energy that was largely obtained based heavily on coal, the agency said. In a separate reading on this subject, I learned that much of the increase in coal usage is courtesy of China.

The same agency reported that there is a sliver of hope that one of the greenhouse gases, methane, can be significantly reduced without excessive cost or lost energy. Here are the facts. Methane, the chief component of natural gas, is produced by the oil and gas industry by drilling for it and then allowing the volatile gas to bubble up from the ground into their pipe lines that they subsequently sell to you and I after processing steps to separate the gas from the oil. It turns out that the drillers and all other parts of the industry who produce and sell the gas, haven’t been very careful in preventing leaks into our atmosphere.

The leaks have been a recognized contributor to the climate problem for some while and various government agencies around the world have naturally been tracking those emissions in the hopes that someday they would be corrected by more careful handling of the material at every step of the process. But here is the new information: the record keepers have added a new data source to their arsenal, satellites. The satellite data shows that all the data heretofore recorded was wrong – the satellite data showed that we have been sending considerably more methane into the atmosphere than previously thought. The good news about this finding is that methane emissions from this source of oil processing and drilling can be stopped relatively quickly at low cost if we have the will. Basically, we need to provide an incentive to the oil and gas companies to clean up their processes to end the unwanted escape of methane.

In the aftermath of the new warnings from the United Nations IPPC, several organizations have published their recommendations for immediate action. One set of recommendations from Leeds University caught my eye because they center on things that individuals and families can do without waiting for government action. Here are their recommendations for personal action that may be ultimately required to keep our planet livable.

·       Eat a largely plant-based diet, with healthy portions and no waste

·       Buy no more than three new items of clothing per year

·       Keep electrical products for at least seven years

·       Take no more than one short haul flight every three years and one long haul flight every eight years

·       Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can – and if not, keep your existing vehicle for longer

·       Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, like moving to green energy and insulating your home

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine taking center stage, Russian exports of oil and gas may be reduced by governments acting to purchase less oil and natural gas from Russia. President Biden announced this week that the US will no longer purchase oil and gas from Putin’s Russia. Whether this will reduce overall use of Russian oil and its resultant air pollution is not clear. Naysayers suggest that some countries may reduce imports of Russian products but increase imports of oil from South America or other nations that have no intention of reducing oil sales because of climate change.

No doubt the mechanism of capitalism will take over and you and I will be paying higher prices for gasoline and all other products that rely on oil for their production, (think plastics and other materials that are oil sensitive). The increase already seen in oil prices before supplies are reduced is the result of oil companies raising their prices as capitalism promises more income from existing inventories of oil. Oil company executives will be congratulating themselves on their windfall and expecting increased salaries after their Boards think the public is not watching.

And, as a final note, did you hear the excitement by a lady on Facebook. She said her family was so excited. She and her husband had negotiated a loan that was just approved. This weekend, she said, her family were going to fill up their car with gas.

Stay tuned. The excitement will continue as we deal with those conservatives who still claim climate change is a hoax.

New Neighbors

 

New Neighbors

 

A chance meeting with my new neighbor reminded me that I haven’t written about my neighborhood in a long while. Accordingly, I decided to look it up. My last neighborhood report to you was August, 2019 when I reported on the happenings at my regular coffee-drinking morning meeting where we discussed the ongoing absurdities of modern-day life and its politics. A lot has happened in the neighborhood since then, so it seemed time to update you.

As you will recall, my neighbors and I live on a sparsely settled road roughly 7 miles from the sole village in our county. Roscommon, we call it, despite the confusion resulting from the overuse of one name for three entities: Our county is named Roscommon, our only village in the county is named Roscommon, and our southwestern-most township in the county is also named Roscommon. Since names are so cheap, you would think our previous state and local leaders could have spent a tiny more time for another name or two to avoid the obvious confusion of our same names for three separate entities. As an aside and an example of this, I should tell you that a purchaser of my book, Early History of Roscommon County, wrote a review of this book. He said he liked the book, was glad he had read it, but still disappointed when he determined the book was about Roscommon, Michigan and had nothing whatsoever to do with County Roscommon in Ireland as he had expected.

But back to my new neighbor who lives one door down from the neighbor next to me. The interesting thing about him is that he is a state employee – a uniformed member of the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources, more specifically, a Conservation Officer. Conservation Officers are a special breed in Michigan with a rich history of law enforcement. “Woods cops,” they are called by some as they recall images of solitary peacekeepers of times gone by.

Their jobs are unique as they work alone, one officer, without direct supervision in a headquarters office, patrolling a county alone. In Roscommon, approximately 50% of the total land area is public land, mostly forested or covered by lakes, streams, ponds or rivers. These uninhabited lands, around 180,000 acres in total, are the domain of our single Conservation Officer neighbor. He is responsible for enforcing the law in these areas across the entire county and he roams the area using his assigned four-wheel drive truck, equipped with weaponry, communication tools and whatever other law enforcement tools that he needs. Depending upon circumstances he may also use a snowmobile, four-wheeler, boat, or plain, old-fashioned shoe leather in the form of water-proof high-top boots.

You might be surprised to learn that Conservation Officers have more authority than regular policemen. For one thing, the CO’s can enter your house uninvited if they have reason to so do – examining the inside of your refrigerator to look for recently taken game, for example. CO’s also have the authority to enforce all laws, not just laws concerning wild game or other activities involving outdoor, natural areas that other law enforcement officials generally ignore or defer to the Department of Natural Resources, better known as the DNR.

A DNR Watercraft Often Used on Major Waterways

 

The Conservation Officers investigate natural resource and environmental protection law violations pertaining to land, air, water and waste, and they are an important resource for local communities faced with environmental conflicts of a criminal nature. Emergency management situations often include the need for CO’s to become involved with other agencies. Forest fires are a continuing concern where I live and the CO’s often are deployed to help local firefighters if their expertise is needed.

 Other emergencies also can activate CO work. During the early days of the Covid emergency Michigan experienced severe weather, extreme flooding, and civil protests, keeping Michigan’s emergency management staff busy throughout the state with response and recovery efforts.

The chance meeting between me and my CO neighbor occurred while he and I were trekking in opposite directions down our road, he running and me walking. Later, I met both he and his wife at our local gym where both were exercising, he with the heavy weights and me with lighter versions of the same weights that I quickly set aside before their diminutive size could be discovered. We had a nice chat and I learned about the Conservation Officer job. I was impressed.

I thought you might like to know.