Climate Change

The climate-transformed planet of 2100 offers, as Mike Tidwell states, little reason for optimism ("The hottest issue," Dec. 15). Further gloom is warranted by the fact that a plurality of Americans have been egregiously misled by the industry-fueled message of triumphant consumerism and climate-change denial prevalent in our media. In the fantasy land inhabited by conservative denialists, the notion of climate change as a liberal conspiracy to enact a one-world government (forced re-education camps for SUV owners!

Maryland environmental officials are staging a series of public meetings, beginning today, to get public input on the state's plan to reduce climate-altering pollution. The General Assembly passed in 2009 an O'Malley-sponsored bill committing Maryland to reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020.  Maryland is among the states most vulnerable to climate change, with the nation's fourth longest tidal coastline exposed to rising sea level. The state Department of the Environment recently unveiled a plan for curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, which projects reaching the goal largely with regulations and programs already on the books.  For details, go here . MDE is holding five public meetings around the state over the next month, with the first today.

T he pace at which the world's glaciers are melting can't hold a candle to the rate at which public acceptance of climate change is losing ground. Two years ago, about 7 out of 10 Americans linked greenhouse gases to global warming, but today it's closer to a 50-50 split. There are any number of reasons for this, ranging from the "inconvenience" of climate change policy during an economic recession to the growing partisan divide over the science of it. The fact that Republicans willingly nominated a presidential candidate in 2008 whose position on climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions was not much different from his Democratic opponent's seems largely forgotten today.

The upcoming weekend is chock-full of green activities. Here are just some: Saturday is "Climate Impacts Day," meaning environmentalists intend to stage a flurry of demonstrations to get people to "connect the dots" between climate change and extreme weather. Folks will be donning gas masks to highlight their concerns during the "cyclovia" bike-walk from Roland Park to Druid Hill Park. Others will be kayaking amid the drowning wetlands at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, while still others plan to celebrate the installation of another solar array in Howard County.

Warning that the water is rising in the Chesapeake Bay, scientists and activists urged Tuesday that Congress act to reduce climate-warming pollution that threatens to flood bayfront communities and worsen the fish-suffocating "dead zones" that plague North America's largest estuary. With a House vote possible Friday on a bill that would seek to curtail greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, two natural resources subcommittees held a field hearing Tuesday at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater to learn more about what global warming might mean for coastal regions like the Chesapeake.

WASHINGTON -- The doors swung open and he made his entrance as cameras clicked. The man who was called a wooden politician, was denied the presidency and was derided as "Ozone Man" was coming home to the Capitol. But this time they called him a movie star and likened him to a prophet. Al Gore left Washington seven years ago after the disputed 2000 election. He returned yesterday as the subject of an Academy Award-winning film, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, a 58-year-old who can share a stage with Leonardo DiCaprio and manage to be the center of attention.

In response to Dana Knighten's recent commentary ("Cool solution for a warming planet," Aug. 9), I would revise and expand on her observation on global warming. "Climate change is nonpartisan, nondenominational, non-nationalistic... " - and non-sense.   Dave Reich, Perry Hall

In "Calvert Cliffs 3 makes no sense" (March 10), Ellen Vancko is adamant that Maryland state government should not in any way underwrite or subsidize a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear facility. Yet while she eschews support for nuclear energy, she implies that it, unlike other forms of renewable energy, will have an effect on "climate change. " Based on that, Ms. Vancko would be more than willing to subsidize the proven inefficiency and lack of cost-effectiveness of solar and wind power — to the detriment of a proven, efficient and world-wide major energy source: nuclear power.

I am glad to see that The Sun finally printed a factual response to so called man-made global warming ("Get past alarmism on global warming," Oct. 26). Writer Richard Haddad has it right and every one who has studied high school physics or chemistry should know carbon dioxide is released from sea water as temperature increases. An additional point to be made is that the largest source of carbon dioxide in the world (greater than all power plants combined) is the thousands of square miles of decaying kelp beds in the Sargasso Sea near the equator in the Atlantic Ocean.

Richard Haddad's assertions in his commentary on climate change ("Get past alarmism on global warming," Oct. 26) are completely at odds with all reliable scientific evidence and analysis. In a report completed earlier this year, our National Academy of Sciences concluded that global warming is unequivocal, has been primarily caused by human activities, and poses significant risks to humans and nature. Surveys show that 97 percent of scientists who do research related to climate agree that our emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases are causing Earth's climate to change.

The Sun's excellent editorial on climate change and its dangers ("Warming: Storm damage ahead," March 14) was so wide-ranging and "national" that it rather skimmed over what Marylanders are aiming for right now in the way of "just… reducing harmful emissions" even while we are warned to get ready for 100-year storms that come every decade, or worse. The work of placing offshore wind power off our coast is in the legislature now and needs support. That's a big step to ending coal-powered, dirty electricity in the state and a breakthrough to give courage to others in other states.

Hurricane season may still be months away, but the threat of flooding is already on the rise in Maryland, as documented by the latest reports on climate change released this week. Rising sea levels have raised the risk of coastal flooding, particularly from severe storms. Analyzing both the latest forecasts of rising high tides caused by warming oceans and the latest population data from the 2010 census, one of several studies released this week, "Surging Seas" by scientists associated with the nonprofit Climate Central environmental research organization, found 3.7 million Americans living near the water will be at risk in the coming decades.

As a scientist, I am outraged at Rick Santorum's statement denying the validity of the dangers posed to the planet from climate change and global warming. What credentials does he have to make any statement about this highly complex scientific subject? His position is completely contrary to the one supported by the great majority of U.S. scientists, the National Academy of Sciences and NASA. Perhaps he will soon advise us on the intricacies of brain surgery or rocket science, about which he is equally knowledgeable.

Maryland is on track to reduce climate-altering greenhouse gases 25 percent by the end of the decade, according to a state environmental official. In a preview of the state's overdue plan to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, George S. "Tad" Aburn Jr., head of air management for the state Department of the Environment , told members of the House Environmental Matters Committee Wednesday that Maryland should exceed the goal set in a 2009 law if all 65 control programs laid out in the draft blueprint work as planned.

A friend of mine, who knows more about these things than I do, corrects me when the subject of global warming enters the conversation. The correct term, she reminds me, "is climate change. " The bottom line is scientists who study the weather are pretty much in agreement that the cumulative effect of decades of air pollution will be to change weather patterns over the long haul. They've come up with evidence that it's pretty much started, as several of the hottest years since records started being kept have been in the last 10 years.

As we head into the new year, America's environmental movement is stalled. The topic of climate change is anathema to the Republican presidential candidates, and the incumbent is tepid on the subject at best. The U.S. stands alone among industrialized nations, who all seem to be making progress in switching to alternative energy sources and reducing their carbon emissions. Germany is on track to obtain 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050; Denmark plans for 100 percent by the same date.

Richard Haddad's commentary "Get past alarmism on global warming" (Oct. 26) is the usual diatribe of denial on this subject. He uses a false standard - that there is no unanimity among scientists studying the issue - to suggest that science does not support the view that global warming is a significant problem. True, there is no "unanimity" - there rarely is among scientific researchers. But there is a strong consensus that human activity contributes to global warming. The so-called "scandal" of scientific investigators inventing or misrepresenting data has been refuted by reputable scientific groups who found no evidence of fraud or misconduct by climate researchers.

By attaching provisions in favor of a gigantic tar sands oil pipeline to the payroll tax cut legislation, Congress seems intent on putting Maryland's coasts in peril. The Keystone XL pipeline, which is proposed to run from Alberta in Canada to Texas, would not only put vast areas in the West in danger of oil spills, it would also harm coastal states by accelerating fuel exploitation and global warming. The University of Maryland has found that Maryland is among the states most vulnerable to rising sea levels from climate change.

The climate-transformed planet of 2100 offers, as Mike Tidwell states, little reason for optimism ("The hottest issue," Dec. 15). Further gloom is warranted by the fact that a plurality of Americans have been egregiously misled by the industry-fueled message of triumphant consumerism and climate-change denial prevalent in our media. In the fantasy land inhabited by conservative denialists, the notion of climate change as a liberal conspiracy to enact a one-world government (forced re-education camps for SUV owners!