Carbon

While I applaud Tim Wheeler for shining a light on the risks of climate change in his recent article "Rising temperatures increase health risks" (May 10), I'm saddened by these three esteemed universities investing time and effort into researching what appears to be common sense. Most all of us know intuitively and from experience that extreme heat - whether it results in heat stroke, dehydration, sunburn, other physiological reactions, or just lack of ability to participate actively in daily activities - is not good for us. The more of it we experience as a society, the higher the number of individuals who will be impacted.

“Would you like to buy a carbon offset with your purchase today?” That's a question you hear more often when you rent a car or buy groceries at MOM'S Organic Markets. Now, you also have that option when you buy natural gas to heat your home. Here's the lowdown on carbon offsets, and two “green natural gas” suppliers that offer to conveniently reduce your carbon footprint.   What is a carbon offset? A carbon offset is when you pay for greenhouse gas reductions elsewhere equal to the amount of those gases you're generating from a particular activity or purchase.  Greenhouse gases (chiefly carbon dioxide and methane)

I looked at the Analysis Group site and model quoted in The Sun's editorial regarding the benefits of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ("Cap and growth," Nov. 16). I would love to see what companies hired the 16,000 estimated jobs produced. The model must be the same one used to justify the government's investment in Solyndra, and also the model you used to say the U.S. should emulate the European financial solution. I would also like to know who paid for the analysis. It obviously was short on facts and the answer was known before inputs were made.

While I applaud Tim Wheeler for shining a light on the risks of climate change in his recent article "Rising temperatures increase health risks" (May 10), I'm saddened by these three esteemed universities investing time and effort into researching what appears to be common sense. Most all of us know intuitively and from experience that extreme heat - whether it results in heat stroke, dehydration, sunburn, other physiological reactions, or just lack of ability to participate actively in daily activities - is not good for us. The more of it we experience as a society, the higher the number of individuals who will be impacted.

Authorities say six people have been sickened by carbon monoxide aboard a cruise ship docked in Baltimore. Baltimore fire department spokesman Chief Kevin Cartwright says crews are on the scene to treat the victims. A hazmat team is trying to determine where the leak is coming from. Cartwright didn't know how ill the victims are or whether they were crew members or passengers. It's also unclear how many people were on the ship. The incident occurred aboard the Celebrity Mercury cruise ship.

Extreme weather events are on the rise, and scientists warn that global warming will bring even more extreme weather in the future ("Derecho and heat wave in review: records, rankings, and by the numbers," July 9). We know that power plants are the largest single source of the carbon pollution fueling climate change, but for too long power plants haven't had any federal limits on how much carbon they can spew into the air. President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency are working to fix this.

Mr. Piette's letter on carbon tax ("Carbon fee is a tax to redistribute wealth," Aug. 15), demonstrates how far we have to go in environmental education. The carbon fee is not for the government, it is a payback to Mother Nature herself for the rape, burning and slow destruction of our environment that we have been doing for centuries (at no cost) and for which we show no signs of abating. For the free market to realize the damage and to be incentivized to move to better renewable energy, the true cost of fossil fuel burning to the environment must be included in the cost to consumers.

Mike Tidwell ("Local action, global lesson," April 22) makes some great points about how incentives are key to changing behaviors. I absolutely agree. But his question about which policy change is best for stimulating rapid climate improvements is off-target. As individuals, 95 percent of us have the power to drastically reduce our carbon footprints, right here and now, without waiting for new legislation, policy changes, improved enforcement or construction of renewable energy projects.

In her recent op-ed piece on climate change ("Cool solution for a warming planet," Aug. 9), writer Dana Knighten exposes herself as a liberal or "progressive," by first parsing the language of revenue. She proposes putting a price or fee on carbon, but never uses the word tax. But by using the government as the collector and distributor of these proposed fees, this amounts to nothing more than a tax meant to redistribute wealth. Socialist indeed.   Secondly, and perhaps most important, is her utter lack of knowledge as to how a (reasonably)

Four members of a Northwest Baltimore family, including two children, were hospitalized yesterday after becoming ill from carbon monoxide fumes emanating from their home's basement furnace, said a spokesman for the city Fire Department. Chief Kevin Cartwright said firefighters received a 911 call about 4:20 p.m. from a sickened family member at a home in the 3800 block of Boarman Ave. A woman, her 16-year-old daughter, a toddler and the children's grandmother were removed from the house and given oxygen at the scene by medics, Cartwright said.

I became frightened when I read the commentary by Norman Meadow ("Nuclear blows away wind," Feb. 1). I wanted to say so much, but my thoughts were running way beyond the commentary. Just one example: The reactor at Chernobyl still contains enough radioactive material to destroy Europe. The only thing stopping it is a decaying sarcophagus. Mr. Meadow doesn't mention this. Nuclear waste is another example. The very first drop is still around. Reality is, there is nothing that can be done about the waste.

Mike Tidwell is correct that the evidence for global climate change is indisputable and that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and alterations in the earth's ecosystems is the primary cause ("Forecast calls for pain," Feb. 6). Since the carbon already in the atmosphere will persist for a thousand years, we must stop and not merely reduce greenhouse gas emissions if we are to stabilize the current status. I agree that society must put a price on carbon dioxide emissions for the universal harm they do. In so doing, as the price increases, clean, non-carbon energy sources will become competitive in the marketplace.

Students and staff were evacuated from Westside Elementary School in Baltimore's Penn North neighborhood early Friday morning after carbon monoxide levels rose to a level higher than is considered safe in the school's boiler room, a Baltimore City Public Schools spokeswoman said. Everyone exited the building in the 2200 block of N. Fulton Ave., south of Druid Hill Park in West Baltimore, sometime after the morning bell rang so work crews could assess where the gas was coming from, said Edie House Foster, the spokeswoman.

For all the hysteria generated by climate-change deniers over how reducing greenhouse gas emissions would be disastrous for consumers and the economy, Maryland and the other eight states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative are demonstrating that it isn't. The decision announced today to lower the cap on carbon dioxide by nearly 45 percent in those states should send a clear message to Washington that cap-and-trade can work. Since 2009, Maryland has been part of the RGGI coalition that limits greenhouse gas emissions by coal-fired power plants.

Formstone may be out, but what about putting more wood into 21st century versions of Baltimore's classic urban dwelling, the row home? Hoping to encourage more use of climate-friendly wood in housing, the U.S. Forest Service is teaming up with City Hall to offer $10,000 in prizes to local architects and builders who come up with the most innovative row home designs that incorporate recycled and sustainably harvested wood and wood fiber. The "Carbon Challenge," as the design contest is called, is to be announced Tuesday morning at a press conference in the city's Oliver neighborhood.

If a tree falls in Maryland's forests — even if no one hears it — researchers soon will have a handle on how much it could contribute to global warming. A pair of geographical scientists at the University of Maryland, College Park is leading an ambitious effort to map the state's forests and measure changes over time in the amount of carbon stockpiled in the trees. With a $1.4 million grant from NASA, the research team hopes to use satellite imagery, aerial photography and ground observations to develop new methods for tracking the carbon stored in woodlands, which could be applied locally, nationally and globally.

Four people, including a baby, were taken from a Baltimore County apartment complex to hospitals Friday afternoon with carbon monoxide poisoning. When firefighters arrived at the Eagles Crest Complex in Fullerton, they found a 20-year-old woman holding an 11-month-old unconscious girl, said Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost. They had made it out of their unit at 7508 Twincrest Court, but crews had to rescue a 44-year-old woman who was unconscious in the apartment, she said.

Seventeen churchgoers were taken to a hospital yesterday for suspected carbon-monoxide poisoning, according to Calvert County firefighters. A child suffered a seizure at Waters Memorial United Methodist Church in the 5400 block of Mackall Road in Mutual about 9:40 a.m., according to firefighters. Shortly afterward, others began complaining of nausea and headaches. Twelve adults and five children were taken to Calvert Memorial Hospital for testing. All are expected to recover, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

A pioneering regional compact to fight climate change stands at a crossroads, as officials from Maryland and eight other Northeast states meet Tuesday in New York to weigh new limits on their power plants' carbon dioxide emissions. With emissions significantly reduced since the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative began in 2008 - though mainly from other factors - the states are weighing how much lower to try to push carbon-dioxide releases through the end of the decade without risking stifling their economic recovery.

Among the 54 calls for medical and fire-rescue service received by the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department during the period Nov. 25 to Dec. 2 were the following: Vero Road, 3900 block, 9:43 a.m. Nov. 30. Crews from the Violetville, Arbutus, English Consul, Lansdowne and Owings Mills volunteer stations and Catonsville, Halethorpe, Randallstown, and Westview career stations responded to the report of a United Parcel Service building fire in...