Yesterday, Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) said that the rapid warming of the Arctic because of oil pollution means that more Arctic drilling should commence. Brad Johnson has the story on yet another amplifying carbon-cycle feedback — burning of fossil fuels melting ice that allows more access to fossil fuels we can burn.
Begich was responding to the presidential oil spill commission’s report, which recommended new drilling around Alaska, subject to stronger standards. The Democratic senator from the state most changed by global warming pollution used the commission’s report to emphasize his desire for more “Arctic development“:
As many of us have been saying for years, more resources and research are needed for Arctic development as warming temperatures make far north resources more accessible.
“Producing the enormous energy resources available within our borders is vital for our economic and national security, but we must develop these resources in a safe and environmentally responsible manner,” Begich continued.
Like the rest of the nation, the future of Alaska is already unsafe because of global warming, as Begich himself has explained. “We are feeling its near-term effects far more than the residents of any other state,” wrote Begich in a March 2010 letter, “including retreating sea ice, rapidly eroding shorelines, thawing permafrost, ocean acidification, and changing fish and wildlife migration patterns.” Since then, the world has continued to rapidly heat up, making 2010 the warmest year on record. National security experts are worried about global warming pollution’s impact on everything from spread of disease to displaced people.
The now-melting Arctic permafrost contains over 1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon, about twice as much carbon as now contained in the atmosphere. The warming Arctic Ocean similarly contains vast reserves of methane. If the thaw continues and creates a feedback loop of Arctic greenhouse emissions, unimaginable global catastrophe will ensue. Apparently without irony, Begich proposes to accelerate that process by further extracting fossil fuels that are buried below the ocean floor, in the name of “economic and national security.”
The Wonk Room contacted Begich’s office to ascertain what the senator believes is a “safe and environmentally responsible manner” to extract fossil fuels made available by global warming, but has not yet received a response.
– Brad Johnson, in a Wonk Room cross-post.
Related Post:
- The antidote to Sarah “fiddle while Nome burns” Palin: Alaska teen testifies on climate change
- BP disaster Commission co-chair Graham: “Drill baby drill” is a selfish and self-defeating energy strategy
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
no comment.
Again, “Drill Baby Drill!” rhymes with . . . , on a scale of horrific proportions.
So Bugs says to Daffy; “Why are you hitting yourself in the head with that hammer?” and Daffy responds; “Because it feels so good when I stop!”
The growing irony this winter -
Australia floods: coal prices will rise along with the water level
London-listed mining groups remain tight-lipped about the impact of the Queensland floods on their operations, but they are probably right to be cautious. There’s a chance the situation could get much worse.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/8257970/Australia-floods-coal-prices-will-rise-along-with-the-water-level.html
Rain hits coal exports in South Africa
Heavy rains in the country have affected exports of coal and maize, already suffering from floods in Australia
http://www.supplychaindigital.com/tags/corn/rain-hits-coal-exports-south-africa
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Commodities Touch Two-Year High on Economic Growth Outlook, Smaller Crops
By Steve Stroth and Alistair Holloway – Jan 12, 2011 11:37 AM CT
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Commodity prices jumped to the highest in more than two years on expectations for global economic growth and lower U.S. forecasts for agricultural inventories. Grains, oilseeds and coffee led gains.
The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 commodities advanced 1.2 percent to 643.82 as of 11:34 a.m. in New York, after touching 645.72, the highest since Sept. 26, 2008. The measure has rallied 21 percent in the past year.
“People are looking forward to a better economy this year, so they’re putting on the risk trade full-force,” said Matt Zeman, a trader at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago.
Industrial output in the euro area rose 1.2 percent in November from the month before, more than economists forecast, European Union data showed today. Germany’s economy, the continent’s biggest, jumped 3.6 percent last year, the most since data for a reunified country began in 1992, the government said today. Global growth will be 4.2 percent in 2011 after 4.8 percent expansion in 2010, the International Monetary Fund estimates.
Corn and soybeans jumped to the highest prices since July 2008 and wheat surged after the government cut its forecasts of U.S. inventories, signaling tighter food supplies as demand increases and adverse weather reduces harvests.
Production of corn in the U.S., the world’s largest grain exporter, dropped 4.9 percent last year and will leave supply before the 2011 harvest at the lowest in 15 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. The USDA also cut its estimate of the soybean crop by 1.4 percent and said domestic wheat inventories will be 16 percent less than a year earlier.
‘All-Time Highs’
“With any weather issues, we’re going to make new all-time highs in corn and soybeans, and to a lesser degree, wheat futures,” said Dan Basse, the president of AgResouce Co., a commodity consultant in Chicago.
Corn futures for March delivery rose 23.5 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $6.305 a bushel at 10:14 a.m. on the Chicago Board of Trade. The price advanced as much as the exchange limit of 30 cents to $6.37, the highest since July 2008.
Soybean futures for March delivery soared 60 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $14.17 a bushel in Chicago, after rising by the exchange limit of 70 cents to $14.27, a 29-month high. Wheat futures for March delivery jumped 19 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $7.785 a bushel, after earlier gaining 4.1 percent.
Coffee rose for a third day in New York on speculation that unfavorable weather and crop diseases will disrupt global supplies. Arabica coffee for March delivery added 6.95 cents, or 3 percent, to $2.4155 a pound at 11:30 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The beans reached $2.4295. Robusta for March delivery climbed 2.7 percent to $2,166 a metric ton on NYSE Liffe at 4:32 p.m. in London.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-12/commodities-touch-two-year-high-on-economic-growth-outlook-smaller-crops.html
As the Arctic melts, by month….unreal.
Ice free around 2015
PIOMAS monthly arctic average ice volumes with trens
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2294/piomastrnd2.png
Drain America first?
Wrong on so many levels.
More on arctic ice:
“Thirty years ago there were over 386,000 square miles of Arctic ice that was older than five years. This September, there were only 22,000 square miles of five-year-old, thicker ice remaining. In a matter of just three decades, we are missing 97 percent of older, thicker ice.”
Source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-reese-halter/wild-weather-unleashed-as_b_807149.html
The situation is dark comic like the light comic one where some clueless individual is busy sawing a plank up high while sitting on its free end.
Yes but yesterday it was reported here that the world ws investing 250 odd billion into the new world energy order and that it if it reaches 500 billion by 2020 then we can avoid the worst of ACC. OK we know that thermal lag in the oceans means another few tenths of a degree warming but 2C might be avoidable.
I am now optimistic – its all possible – we have the means and the money.
NCAR: long-term CO2 forcing effect could be double what current climate models assume –
http://www2.ucar.edu/news/3628/earth-s-hot-past-could-be-prologue-future-climate
Not quite sawing the limb out from under oneself fj3, but this old clip seems apropos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZZteNNwvrk
That look back to the camera at the end is priceless. I imagine it’s the expression we’ll see on the faces of many of our industrial and political “leaders” in about 15-20 years after delay delay delay.
While waiting in the Dr’s office I read an article in an old TIME Magazine that Sitka, Alaska was selling a huge amount of “its” water to some private company for shipping to China or India as bottled water.
Water will soon be more valuable than oil. You can’t drink or water crops with oil.
There are some real wild cards out there people aren’t looking at. I believe that before we are able to capitalize on Arctic oil there will be severe disruptions in production and commerce from weather (as we are seeing already) and such things as rogue waves. With recession, oil consumption will dfrop again, and renewables are going to increase over time. Things are going to look very, very different even in 10 years.
paulm:
Can you tell me where you got that piomastrnd2 graph? I can’t find it on their site, and I’d really like to use it.
Also, did you set up the piomas-3.txt file on snipt.org (http://snipt.org/wkyg)? Where did that data come from? (Again, I can’t find it on their site; I located the data when googling to track down the graph.)
I’m not challenging the accuracy, just looking for “official” sources for these two items.
So what happens when a Democrat, who says the arctic ice is melting and wants to drill for oil, bumps into an oil-hungry Republican who says the arctic ice isn’t melting? Do they annihilate each other like matter and antimatter? Does the Repub go up in a mushroom cloud of cognitive dissonance when his belief in drill, baby, drill conflicts with his AGW-hoax belief?
Global warming is a hoa….oh look, oil!
Wow! Truly a bit of convoluted and circular reasoning straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Thanks for the cross-post. :o)
It’s funny how we focus on one area to the exclusion of others. Yes the Arctic is lower than it’s ever been in extent over the last month. Oh, Wait, it’s winter isn’t it? Yes but the Hudson Bay still hasn’t iced over completely.
At the same time the Wilkins Ice Shelf continues to comprehensively break up without comment and the latest Pine Island overhead has some odd dark marks on it (could just be the image though) and is visibly accelerating discharge each year.
Politicians are what they are. Political animals who say what they think needs to be said in order to keep their voters sweet. Why any conflict with reality and a Politicians rambling should amaze is the Amazing thing.
I looked up Victoria today. I wanted to see the state of the Drought. It was an odd article.
Great, the drought is over.
But,
We’ve had drastic rainfall, in some areas the worst we’ve ever seen, it’s damaged crops and homes.
But,
We had a plague of Locusts
But,
There were some of the worst summer storms we’ve ever seen with hail so large it destroyed crops, propterty and injured people.
But,
It’s great, the drought is over.
They say a Farmer is never happy no matter what the weather is doing, it could always be better.
I think, this time, I’ll give the Aussie farmers the benefit of the doubt.
Bugs Bunny: Duck Season…
Daffy Duck: Rabbit Season…
Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Season…
Daffy Duck: Duck Season…
Daffy: FIRE!!
Begich: Global Warming…
Denier: Global Cooling….
Begich: Global Warming…
Denier: Global Cooling…
Begich: DRILL!!
Given that some recent studies have indicated that even if we do limit greenhouse gas emissions we cannot stop the warming, maybe our leaders have decided it is time to stop fighting. I know our president has.
Here is a recent news article:
“even if CO2 emissions are brought under control this century, enough heat will be transferred from the atmosphere to the deep oceans that temperatures in the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, could rise by 9 degrees F in the next 1,000 years, leading to the melting of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet and an increase in global sea levels of 13 feet.”
From:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS345358659020110111
It seems to me Begich is saying that since Alaska ALREADY HAS “rapidly eroding shorelines, thawing permafrost, ocean acidification, and changing fish and wildlife migration patterns.” They might as well go for the oil profits.
And to answer this question:
“So what happens when a Democrat, who says the arctic ice is melting and wants to drill for oil, bumps into an oil-hungry Republican who says the arctic ice isn’t melting?”
THEY JUST DRILL FOR OIL. All the melting/not melting talk is for public news consumption and not intended for serious people interested in profiting from doom.
13 Lou,
comment 103 at…
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1726
also
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2010/12/open-thread-3.html
Alaska is an oil and welfare state. Oil pays for government and gives residents a yearly dividend each October to goose the economy. The resource extractive industries operate in Cook Inlet and the North Slope for oil and minerals are extracted at several scales throughout the state. Defense and federal agencies to support and monitor extractive industries are the other major jobs, followed by the logistics of feeding and supporting those jobs.
The pipeline is half empty now, and like the oil field infrastructures it is falling apart. That’s the reality Marky B. has to deal with in Alaska.