Long thought to produce only one generation of tree-killing offspring annually, some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically increasing the potential for the bugs.

Because of the extra annual generation of beetles, there could be up to 60 times as many beetles attacking trees in any given year, their study found. And in response to warmer temperatures at high elevations, pine beetles also are better able to survive and attack trees that haven’t previously developed defenses.

Pine beetle damage

That’s from the University of Colorado, Boulder news release for a new study in in The American Naturalist.

We’ve known that climate change  favors invasive species, but the mountain pine beetle infestation is far worse than anyone had imagined even a decade ago. This this new study, “Mountain Pine Beetle Develops an Unprecedented Summer Generation in Response to Climate Warming,” spells out the grim facts:

The current MPB epidemic is the largest in history, extending from the Yukon Territory, Canada, to southern California and New Mexico…. To date, more than 13 million ha [hectares] of trees have been killed in British Columbia. The MPB-killed trees in British Columbia alone will release 990 million tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere, an amount equal to five times the annual emissions from all forms of transportation in the country. Forests affected by bark beetles also have altered hydrology and biogeochemical cycles. Thus, extensive beetle kill is altering forest ecology and tipping conifer forests from regional carbon sinks to carbon sources, thereby creating positive feedback for climate-change factors.

For more on the amplifying feedback, see “Nature: Beetle tree kill releases more carbon than fires.”

It turns out that there has been an “exponential increase in the beetle population.” Why has infestation been nonlinear? The study’s abstract explains:

The mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) is native to western North America, attacks most trees of the genus Pinus, and periodically erupts in epidemics. The current epidemic of the MPB is an order of magnitude larger than any previously recorded, reaching trees at higher elevation and latitude than ever before. Here we show that after 2 decades of air-temperature increases in the Colorado Front Range, the MPB flight season begins more than 1 month earlier than and is approximately twice as long as the historically reported season. We also report, for the first time, that the life cycle in some broods has increased from one to two generations per year. Because MPBs do not diapause and their development is controlled by temperature, they are responding to climate change through faster development. The expansion of the MPB into previously inhospitable environments, combined with the measured ability to increase reproductive output in such locations, indicates that the MPB is tracking climate change, exacerbating the current epidemic.

[Read about diapause here. I welcome a simpler explanation from any biologist reading this.]

For more  background on the study, here is an extended excerpt from the news release:

Read more

A new report from the prominent global consulting firm McKinsey shows why solar photovoltaics have hit a tipping point.

As the economics of solar PV continue to improve steadily and dramatically, McKinsey analysts conclude that the total “economic potential” of solar PV deployment could reach 600-1,000 gigawatts (1 million megawatts) by 2020.

In the year 2000, the global demand for solar PV was 170 megawatts.

That doesn’t mean 1 million megawatts will get developed by 2020; it’s just an estimate of the economic competitiveness of solar PV. When factoring in real-word limitations like the regulatory environment, availability of financing, and infrastructure capabilities, the actual yearly market will be closer to 100 gigawatts in 2020.

That could bring in more than $1 trillion in investments between 2012 to 2020.

The McKinsey report, appropriately named “Darkest Before Dawn,” highlights three crucial factors that are giving the solar industry so much momentum — even with such a violent shakeout occurring in the manufacturing sector today.

Read more

by Carol M. Browner, via the Albright Stonebridge Group India Newsletter

In the energy and environment sector, India currently faces a clear inflection point with the potential to become an innovative leader in the use and development of clean energy and renewable products.

While the scale of the energy and environmental challenges is tremendous, it also represents a significant opportunity.  The Government of India has also made investment in these areas a key focus and priority, though the country still suffers from shortages of electricity, inadequate water and sanitation, and overburdened infrastructure.

The Indian economy has grown rapidly over the past decade, with growth rates routinely topping 8%, and this year growth is expected to be robust again.  Such growth rates are essential in India, where more than half a million new people enter the labor force each month.  That being said, the Government of India recognizes that economic growth will falter unless there is more investment in energy, mobility, and water services to provide the critical underpinnings of development.  To help meet this challenge, the government is planning to invest over $1 trillion in infrastructure projects over the next five years, half of that in the form of public-private partnerships.  This represents a tremendous opportunity for U.S. firms with technological solutions to energy and environmental challenges to develop their presence in the Indian market.

Clean energy is one of the brightest opportunities in India.  In 2011, India had the fastest growth rate in clean energy investment of any major economy: $10.3 billion was invested in the sector, a 52% increase over 2010.  Under its “National Solar Mission” the Indian government has established a formal goal of 20,000 MW of electricity from solar by 2020.  According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 2011 saw a substantial increase in grid-connected solar capacity in India, up from 18 MW in 2010 to an estimated 277 MW by end of 2011.  The total installed capacity took another giant leap forward last week with the commissioning of the world’s largest PV power plant (600 MW) in the state of Gujarat.  With projects like that, it is no wonder that credible sources are forecasting the country may overshoot its 2020 goal.  The key to unleashing a true flood of solar investment will be when the price of solar power falls to parity with traditional grid power, a milestone India appears on track to reach as soon as 2018 (indeed, in rural areas, the equivalent of grid parity has already arrived, with solar today providing power more cheaply than diesel fuel).

The Indian wind sector is another success story that continues to build; it added a record 2,827 MW of capacity in 2011, bringing total wind capacity to just over 16,000 MW.  This put India just behind China and the U.S. in terms of new capacity additions, and India is on track to add even more this year. A 2011 study by the Global Wind Energy Council forecast that India’s wind energy capacity could increase to more than 65 GW by 2020 if supported by aggressive policies.  Perhaps the most exciting recent news for the Indian wind sector is a study released last month by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S., which pegged India’s wind energy potential at 2 to 3 million MW, which is 20 to 30 times greater than previous official estimates.  Much of the increase is due to the fact that modern turbines are taller, and therefore able to take advantage of faster wind speeds at higher altitudes.  This vast potential, coupled with prices for wind power that are now cost competitive with imported coal and natural gas, bode well for continued rapid growth in the sector.

And solar and wind are just two of the energy and environmental sectors in the midst of exciting growth.

Read more

by Ruy Teixeira

President Barack Obama recently observed that tackling climate change remains vitally important despite difficulties moving legislation forward. Conservatives, of course, are trying their utmost to remove the issue permanently from political discussion, claiming that the public is tired of the debate and no longer has an appetite for combating global warming.

But a just-released poll from the Yale and George Mason climate change communication programs reveals the lie in this claim. 63 percent of respondents said the United States should move forward to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do, compared to 3 percent who said we should await action by industrialized countries, 8 percent who said we should wait for both industrialized and developing countries to move, and 5 percent who said we shouldn’t bother reducing emissions.

In the same poll, the public supported — by a margin of 63 percent to 37 percent — requiring electric utilities to produce at least 20 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources, even if that would cost the average household an extra $100 per year.

The poll also found that 65 percent of Americans support an international treaty to require a 90 percent cut in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

Clearly, reports of the death of public support for action on global warming are overblown. Contrary to conservative assertions, that support is alive and kicking.

Ruy Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. This is a CAP cross-post.

Related Posts:

• Gallup: 65% of Americans Support ‘Imposing Mandatory Controls On CO2 Emissions’
• Poll: 75 Percent of Americans Support Regulating CO2 As A Pollutant, 60 Percent Support Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax
• Polling Expert: Is Obama’s Reluctance to Mention Climate Change Motivated by a False Assumption About Public Opinion?
• Independents, Other Republicans Split With Tea-Party Extremists on Global Warming
• Democrats Taking “Green” Positions on Climate Change “Won Much More Often” Than Those Remaining Silent

Want to know where the country’s dirtiest hotel room is? No, it’s not that $20-per-night drive-in motel on the side of the highway. Chances are that it’s a penthouse suite in a J.W. Marriott hotel in Chicago.

And if you’re looking for the cleanest hotel in the country, you might consider going to a Vagabond Inn located somewhere in California.

That’s according to a new report from the research firm Brighter Planet, which just released a comprehensive ranking of the energy and carbon intensity of hotel chains across the country. Here’s a look at the geographic spread of where the “cleanest” and “dirtiest” hotels are located:

There are 51,000 hotels, motels and inns scattered around the U.S. with roughly five million guests rooms. According to Brighter Planet, the lodging industry represents 4 percent of all commercial building energy consumption in the country, generating 34.5 million metric tons of CO2 each year.

As appliances and building materials get more efficient, you’d think that the industry would be getting more efficient. But this analysis shows that modern hotels use far more energy per room than their “vintage counterparts.” This trend is particularly stark in upscale hotel chains, which use 25 percent more energy per night than the average budget hotel.

The dirtiest 25 percent of hotels — a large share of which are upscale chains — represent more than half of the energy use and carbon emissions from the entire lodging industry. The cleanest 25 percent only make up 7 percent of energy consumption and carbon emissions.

However, it’s wrong to conclude that high-class hotels are always going to be “dirtier” than budget lodging:

It’s probably no surprise that efficiency varies by price, with upscale hotels on average using 25% more energy per room-night than budget hotels. This is to be expected based on hotel characteristics: the average upscale hotel has twice as many rooms and was built a decade more recently than the average budget hotel, with midrange hotels falling in between.

But it’s important to note that there’s so much variability within each service class that the different service classes overlap significantly. Nationwide the cleanest upscale hotels are cleaner than most budget hotels, and the dirtiest budget hotels are as dirty as all but the dirtiest quarter of upscale hotels.

This study is particularly relevant for companies attempting to track their carbon footprints. It’s not just air or car travel that matters. Depending on the length of stay and the type of room purchased, lodging can rival the carbon intensity of office space.

by Kaid Benfield, via NRDC’s Switchboard

If you’re in the business of trying to make communities better, and supporting great, green revitalization that will strengthen central cities, you know only too well how change can frighten current residents.  Not entirely without reason, people fear development, especially when someone new shows up with an idea.  Heck, a friend of mine is having trouble beating back opposition to a nice pizza place in a vacant commercial property in his neighborhood.  It can be hard to stay optimistic when even pizza is controversial.

There may be something very human – maybe even Darwinian – about our tendency to resist ideas that come from, you know, other people.  (I guarantee that if the idea for universal health care based on all citizens buying health insurance had come from within the Republican Party rather than from the Dems, Republicans wouldn’t oppose it so strongly.  Oh wait . . .)  So, how do we empower communities to own ideas for development?

Two young developers in DC have come up with a new way to solicit opinion on what to do with commercial property in an up-and-coming neighborhood.  First they bought the property, on H Street, NE, where the first segment of the new DC streetcar will run.  Then they set up a website called Popularise to solicit community ideas on what people would like to see in that space, and hung a banner over the property, saying “What would YOU build here?” and directing people to the website.  People can submit their own ideas to the site and/or vote and comment on those submitted by others.

Read more

by Rebecca Lefton and Andrew Light

In 2010 the U.S. launched the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) as a collaborative effort among governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders to promote policies, programs, and technical solutions that will accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy.

An outgrowth of the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum — which brings together the major carbon polluters in the world in a smaller forum than the U.N. climate negotiations — the CEM has evolved into a global alliance of 23 countries joined in a variety of partnerships to advance energy efficiency, increase renewable energy, and provide modern energy access solutions to 10 million people by 2015.

Last week the CEM met in London and had its most successful meeting to date, greatly expanding a number of its initiatives on technology cooperation. This alone would have signaled a successful meeting. But the parties went even further, joining forces with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s Sustainable Energy For All (SE4ALL) initiative.  SE4ALL has emerged as the key goal for the upcoming Rio+20 meeting in June, an event marking the 20^th anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit that gave birth to the U.N. framework conventions on climate change, biological diversity, and desertification.

Moon’s Sustainable Energy For All goals are to (1) ensure universal access to electricity by 2030, (2), double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030, and (3) double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.  While some in the environment and development community had doubted the U.N.’s ability to move this new platform over the finish line in Rio, this show of support from the CEM parties greatly increases the chances of success by adding a necessary level of detail for how the goals would move forward.

Read more

A round-up of the top climate and energy news. Please post other links below.

Last year’s hurricanes and flooding not only engulfed homes and carried away roads and bridges in hard-hit areas of the country, it dispersed aggressive invasive species as well. [Associated Press]

Insurance company executives are aware of the future risks posed by climate change. And yet they have been slow to prepare for the coming wave of weather-related accidents and litigation spawned by global warming changes. [AllGov]

If you want to shrink your carbon footprint when you check into a hotel, you may be better off staying at a mid-range or budget chain hotel. [Los Angeles Times]

Tim McCarver isn’t just a baseball announcer, no, he’s also evidently an amateur meteorologist. How else would one explain McCarver dropping this wisdom on an unsuspecting nation during Saturday afternoon’s MLB on Fox coverage. [Huffington Post]

The biggest challenge to farming and food security in Zimbabwe today is not funding, it is not skills shortage but climate change and global warming. [All Africa]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to create jobs in renewable energy is faltering as subsidy cuts and competition from Chinese manufacturers forces the industry to stop hiring for the first time in eight years. [Businessweek]

India is struggling to add more electricity capacity for the country’s rapidly growing economy, but the domestic coal industry is an absolute mess, points out articles in the New York Times and the Economist this month. [Earth2Tech]

In six oceans, the U.S. Navy is considered the master. In the seventh, the Arctic Ocean, it will rely on others. [The Weekly Herald]