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Day: October 10, 2014

NOAA Report Destroys Global Warming Link To Extreme Weather

According to NOAA, heat waves were nevertheless exacerbated by global warming. Of course, any amplification in heat waves is counterbalanced by extreme cold events becoming 30 times less likely. Importantly, global warming’s reduction of extreme cold events provides more human health and welfare benefits than any harm caused by an increase in heat waves. Official government mortality statistics show people are much more likely to die during winter months and extreme cold events than during summer months and heat waves.…

How many animals are really going extinct? ‘Where are the bodies? Actual documented extinctions are vanishingly rare’

Excerpts: ‘Some conservationists have effectively told him, “Damn the data, we have an agenda.”the difference between documented extinctions and predicted extinctions is so big that people are likely—and justifiably so—to question it.’

”Despite what might be precipitously dwindling numbers in the wild, only a handful of mammal species have been declared extinct this century.

In 2011, Hubbell coauthored a controversial paper that was published in the journal Nature under the bold title “Species-area relationships always overestimate extinction rates from habitat loss.” It was a technical argument that questioned an equation commonly used to estimate extinction, but the implications were clear: Conservationists really had no idea what the extinction rate is, and were likely overstating their case. That notion had been bubbling up for several years; an earlier paper by two tropical biologists claimed that population shifts and forest regrowth would mean rain-forest extinctions would be lower than many predictions.Actual documented extinctions are vanishingly rare.President Nixon’s signing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 was a high point of public and political engagement on the problem.


Since then, pronouncements from conservation advocates have grown more and more dire. In 1979, Berkeley ecologist Norman Myers published a book called “The Sinking Ark,” which claimed 40,000 species were disappearing each year. The next decade, a biologist who worked for the World Wildlife Fund predicted up to 20 percent of all species would disappear by the turn of the millennium. That didn’t happen, but the drumbeat of alarms continues: A much-publicized paper in 2004 warned that by 2050, climate change could put 1 million species at risk of extinction.

There’s at least one problem with these predictions: Where are the bodies? Actual documented extinctions are vanishingly rare. “If you ask any member of the public to name 10 species that have gone extinct in the last century, most would really really struggle,” Ladle said. “Then you’ve got the world’s most famous conservationists telling you that 27,000 are going extinct every year. The two don’t tally up.” The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which keeps the most definitive list of extinct and threatened species, has counted just over 800 total confirmed animal extinctions since the year 1600.…

‘Hundreds Of Hunting And Fishing Groups Voice Their Support For Action On Climate Change’

Hundreds Of Hunting And Fishing Groups Voice Their Support For Action On Climate Change

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/10/10/3578498/hunting-fishing-groups-support-climate-action/

CREDIT: shutterstock Hundreds of sportsmen’s groups want President Obama to act on climate change, and they think the administration’s recent power plant rule is a pretty good way to do it. On Wednesday, 325 hunting, fishing, and outdoors groups and individuals signed a letter to the president voicing their support for the Administration’s rule aimed at curbing carbon emissions from existing power plants. The sportsmen’s groups, which include Trout Unlimited and Pheasants Forever, are part of what they say is a $90 billion hunting and fishing industry and combined represent millions of members. “As hunters and anglers, we see first-hand how climate change is altering habitat and putting our outdoor heritage at risk,” the groups state in the letter. “As stewards for future generations, it is our obligation to conserve land and water resources by advancing climate-adaptation strategies that promote healthy fish and wildlife populations, and sustain the forests, grasslands, rivers and other systems on which they — and we — depend.” The groups singled out the president’s Climate Action Plan and executive order on climate preparedness as positive steps toward protecting the environment from the worst impacts of climate change, and said that they were especially pleased by the president’s “recognition that responding to climate change requires steps to reduce the carbon pollution that threatens fish and wildlife.” The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled its proposed rule on existing power plants in June, a regulation that aims to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. The groups’ support of action on climate change isn’t surprising. A 2012 poll found that 69 percent of hunter and angler respondents thought the U.S. needed to reduce its carbon emissions, and that 59 percent thought climate change was occurring. And many hunting and fishing groups double as conservation groups — Trout Unlimited has undertaken multiple conservation projects throughout the U.S., and the group says it has helped protect 13 million acres of “healthy backcountry habitat.” Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever also work to conserve bird habitat — the local chapters of Pheasants Forever work to persuade landowners to donate land to the USDA’s Continuous Conservation Reserve Program, and so far, the group’s efforts have resulted in 200,000 acres being enrolled in the program in the state of Iowa alone. And there are …

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