Professor Chris Reid, Marine Institute, University of Plymouth and Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science highlights the speed of change which has been greater than most scientists predicted even in worst case scenarios.

A “shocking” report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) comes from the “first inter-disciplinary international meeting of marine scientists of its kind and was designed to consider the cumulative impact of multiple stressors on the ocean, including warming, acidification, and overfishing.”

The 27 leading experts “produced a grave assessment of current threats — and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues”:

… we now face losing … entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation. Unless action is taken now, the consequences of our activities are at a high risk of causing, through the combined effects of climate change, overexploitation, pollution and habitat loss, the next globally significant extinction event in the ocean. It is notable that the occurrence of multiple high intensity stressors has been a pre-requisite for all the five global extinction events of the past 600 million years

Dr. Alex Rogers, IPSO’s scientific director, said in a release:

“The findings are shocking.  This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children’s and generations beyond that.”

This bad news isn’t big news to Climate Progress readers.  Two years ago I discussed a study that found global warming is “capable of wrecking the marine ecosystem and depriving future generations of the harvest of the seas” for a long, long time (see 2009 Nature Geoscience study concludes ocean dead zones “devoid of fish and seafood” are poised to expand and “remain for thousands of years”).

A year ago I wrote about a Nature Geoscience study, which found our oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred.  Also last year the Geological Society reported that acidifying oceans spell marine biological meltdown “by end of century.”

This report makes clear that dangerous impacts are occurring now, and we have little time to act to avert catastrophe.  It’s good to see a group of leading experts spell things out bluntly, along with some must-see videos like these two:

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The Fort Calhoun nuclear power station in Nebraska remains shut down due to Missouri River flooding, but the plant itself has not flooded and is expected to remain safe, the federal government said Friday.

The rising river “has certainly affected the site, but the plant itself, the actual reactor is still dry,” said Scott Burnell, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman.

The 478-megawatt plant north of Omaha shut April 9 to refuel, and has remained shut because of the flooding, said Omaha Public Power District spokesman Jeff Hanson.

“When the river reaches 1,004 feet above mean sea level, we shut down,” said Hanson. “We don’t have any idea when we’ll be able to start again.”

As this AP News Video makes clear, though, it “may be late fall” before it can restart:

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Experience shows that environmental standards are an important part of economic prosperity

Calpine’s Thad Miller: “As American companies, we’re all in this to make money. And we asked: ‘How can we make money while also investing in a sustainable future?’ The time is here for change and the changes are going to happen either way.”

One of the biggest targets for GOP presidential candidates this year is the EPA. Any new regulation of mercury or air toxics from power plants have gotten conservatives up in arms, with leading candidates claiming the EPA “monitors the economy,” is “anti-business” and should be re-named “the Job-Killing Organization of America.”

That strong rhetoric is largely in reaction to proposed rules that will lower the amount of mercury, arsenic, lead and air toxics that power producers are allowed to emit. Those rules, which have been in the making for over a decade, have come under fire from Congressional Republicans and presidential hopefuls, who say they’ll hurt businesses and destroy jobs.

The real impact of the last 40 years of EPA regulations? No economic collapse, no mass layoffs, no spikes in electricity prices. According to EPA figures (shown above), since the early 70′s when the organization started enforcing regulations to clean up water and air around the country, the six common pollutants (ozone, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and lead) have dropped nearly 63%, while GDP has grown over 200%.

And will such rules cause energy prices to skyrocket? According to projections from the Energy Information Administration, the regulations will not cause a substantial increase in electricity prices:

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Our guest bloggers are Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy Daniel J. Weiss, Special Assistant Valeri Vasquez, and intern Stewart Boss, with the Energy team at the Center for American Progress.

Coal-fired power plants shoot 772 million pounds of airborne toxic chemicals into the sky every year – more than 2.5 pounds for every American man, woman, and child. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to dramatically reduce the mercury, lead, acid gases, and other toxics from more than 400 plants in 46 states.

Some of the nation’s largest utilities — including Southern Company, DTE Energy, MidAmerican Energy, and American Electric Power — claim that cutting emissions of mercury, arsenic, lead, acid gases, and other cancer causing pollutants from coal-fired power plants will cause economic hardship.

In fact, a new Center for American Progress report finds:

– Utilities plan to shut down at least 80 of these aging units — closures announced before EPA proposed the air toxics reduction rules.

– Plants in 17 states are already required to address their mercury pollution, regardless of federal requirements.

– The total net economic benefit of the air toxics rule is $48 billion to $130 billion in 2016 alone.

Coal-fired power plants are the “largest human-caused source of mercury emissions in the United States,” according to Senate testimony by Dr. Jerome Paulson of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Power plants spew 40 percent of mercury emissions in the United States. Mercury causes severe developmental disabilities, deafness, and blindness in cases of prenatal and infant exposure. The chemical can lower fertility rates and raise chances of heart disease in adults.

The Clean Air Act of 1990 included measures to reduce emissions of airborne mercury and other toxic chemicals to protect public health. Twenty-one years later, we are on the cusp of final adoption of essential cleanup standards that protect children, seniors, and other Americans from cancer-causing and smog-forming pollution from coal-fired power plants. CAP’s analysis of electricity producers in states with their own mercury rules found that a majority of their coal-fired generation capacity already has the pollution-control equipment necessary to reduce mercury.

Congress must ignore the arm twisting and campaign contributions from the big utilities that want to continue to spew these poisons into the skies—and our lungs, waters, fields, and wildlife. Instead, senators and representatives should urge the Obama administration to promptly issue and enforce these long-delayed safeguards.

Read more in the CAP report, Mercury Falling: Many Power Plants Already Have Equipment to Slash Mercury, Toxic Contamination.

A round-up of climate and energy news. Please post other stories below.

White House Timetable Slips for Solar Roof

Amid a surge of solar energy industry moves aimed at making installations faster, easier, and more affordable, one of the highest-profile rooftop projects is taking longer than hoped.

The Obama administration missed its planned spring 2011 date for putting solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and a heating system atop the White House—an effort meant to boost the profile of the renewable energy technology by bringing it back to the U.S. presidential residence for the first time in 25 years. (See last fall’s announcement at the Green Gov symposium hosted by our Planet Forward partners here.)

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Yesterday, CNN/Fortune profiled American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard, who took the reins in October 2008 and “has pretty much been in crisis mode since.” In his time in his position, he pared back over two dozen priorities to just six – axing alternative energy research to focus on protecting Big Oil’s tax breaks and expanding drilling in America’s oceans and public lands. And in an effort to “change the perception that Big Oil and Republican politics are inextricably bound,” he also hired Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) nephew Marty Durbin and “organized fly-in lobbying visits by African-American, Hispanic, and female oil workers.”

The profile also details API’s influence after the BP disaster in the Gulf – the largest and most devastating oil spill in American history. API launched ultimately successful rallies to help “derail the ‘spill bill’ Democrats aimed to enact in the wake of the BP disaster.” To maximize their efforts, the oil industry giant went about building an astroturf movement complete with “a slick corporate production”:

Last summer, after the House passed a tough bill to boost safety standards for offshore drilling and remove a liability cap for oil spills, Gerard mounted a round of rallies in regions far from the oilfields. At one, in suburban Chicago, more than 500 union workers assembled for a slick corporate production stage-managed to look like a working-class event.

And while API lobbied hard against safety measures for oil drilling, they’ve been supportive of recent bills to speed up the permitting process. And Gerard also kicked off the 2011 congressional session by calling for opening additional areas to expanded drilling, flying in the face of recommendations from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Operations that rules for prevention and containment of spills need to be improved before drilling operations are expanded.

This isn’t the first time the American Petroleum Institute has been involved in artificial organizing. Back in 2009, Think Progress reported on a leaked memo from Gerard calling on oil company leadership to urge employees to take part in “Energy Citizen” rallies in opposition to cap and trade legislation. And the New York Times reported that “many of the people attending the demonstration were employees of oil companies who work in Houston and were bused from their workplaces.”

The American Petroleum Institute already has a wide-reaching influence in the public policy debate. In 2010 and 2009, API spent $7.3 million on lobbying each year. So far in 2011, API has spent $2.07 million on lobbying activities. And earlier this year, the group announced it would begin making direct contributions to political candidates.

How far John McCain has fallen.  Four years ago, he explained that California wildfires were the kind of extreme events that are “symptoms, of the violent climate conditions that result from climate change.”

Now he’s just another Tea Party extremist:

“There is substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally,” McCain said Saturday at a press conference. “The answer to that part of the problem is to get a secure border.”’

McCain defended his wildly criticized remarks by suggesting the U.S. Forest Service officials told him “there is substantial evidence” supporting his claim.

On NBC’s Today Show this morning, he was baffled about why people are attacking his nonsensical claims:

As TP reported, a Forest Service spokesperson said, “There’s no evidence” that immigrants started the fire.  In fact, one week ago Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell testified in front of the Senate:

“Throughout the country, we’re seeing longer fire seasons, and we’re seeing snowpacks that, on average, are disappearing a little earlier every spring,” he said, as well as devastating droughts. As a result, fire seasons have lengthened by more than 30 days, on average.

“Our scientists believe this is due to a change in climate,” said Tidwell.

Before his election loss to Obama and hard shift to the anti-science right, McCain himself not only understood this — but  he actually explained it to voters, as this 2007 video makes clear:

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Power plants spew 40% of mercury emissions in the United States. Mercury causes severe developmental disabilities, deafness, and blindness in cases of prenatal and infant exposure. The chemical can lower fertility rates and raise chances of heart disease in adults.  [AP Photo]

by Dan Weiss, Valeri Vasquez and Stewart Boss

Coal-fired power plants shoot 772 million pounds of airborne toxic chemicals into the sky every year—more than 2.5 pounds for every American man, woman, and child. In March the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to dramatically reduce the mercury, lead, acid gases, and other toxics from more than 400 plants in 46 states.

Some of the nation’s largest utilities—including the Southern Company and DTE (formerly Detroit Edison)—have publicly and privately lobbied to delay, weaken, or block these safeguards. They claim, as such polluters usually do, that cutting emissions of mercury, arsenic, lead, acid gases, and other cancer-causing pollutants from coal-fired power plants will cause economic hardship. History has taught us such claims about pending public health protection measures are nearly always wrong.

Analyses from CAP and others have found that many power plants have already installed or have under construction the pollution-control technologies that can significantly reduce mercury as well as other pollutants. Plants in 17 states are already required to address their mercury pollution, regardless of federal requirements. These measures vary in stringency, with some of them imposing more protective mercury-emissions limits on coal-fired power plants than the EPA has proposed:

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The Paris Air Show, the biggest and most prestigious international aviation event, is taking place this week. Airline companies and biofuel producers are trying to make renewable fuels the star of the show.

On Sunday, Honeywell flew a G450 business jet from New Jersey to Paris on a half-and-half blend of camelina-based biofuel, making it the first transatlantic biofuels flight in history. Forbes’ Todd Woody was on that trip, which traced the path of Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight across the Atlantic:

I’m more than half way to Paris on the first transatlantic flight powered by biofuels and the journey has been….utterly unremarkable.

Which is exactly the point.

No modifications to Honeywell’s Gulfstream G-450 were needed before the biofuel made from camelina seed – an inedible plant – by the company’s UOP subsidiary was pumped into one of the six-year-old jet’s Rolls-Royce engines.

And yesterday, Boeing flew its new 747 freighter plane from Seattle to Paris using a 15 percent blend camelina biofuel. This flight will also be a “first.” Boeing will be showing off the plane, which it says will substantially reduce carbon emissions:

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