Global Warming in New York
Climate Change can Wait? - 08/08/08
As scientists worldwide warn with increasing urgency that greenhouse gas emissions must drop soon in order to head off the worst effects of climate change, some want to wait.
the Business Council of New York State wrote Gov. David Paterson to put the brakes on a multi-state effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was begun in 2003 by Gov. George Pataki, a Republican who left a substantial environmental legacy, to control emissions of carbon dioxide. A substantial and growing scientific consensus identifies ever-rising levels of CO2 as the cause of climate change.
Under the RGGI program, which has grown to involve New York and nine other northeastern states, power plant owners would have to purchase state-issued credits to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The state would auction credits for 63.4 million tons of CO2 annually and use the hundreds of millions of dollars raised to help fund conservation and environmentally-clean energy programs. The target is to cut CO2 emissions 10 percent starting in 2015 by reducing the amount of credits.
But on Thursday, the Business Council President and CEO Kenneth Adams wrote to Paterson, urging a halt. The reason: His group wants more time to consider the final rules, which are substantially similar to a model rule unveiled two years ago.
Rock Snot Spreads Further into the Delaware River - 07/22/08
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced the presence of the invasive algae didymo (Didymosphenia geminata) in the West Branch of the Delaware River downstream from the Cannonsville Reservoir, indicating that the main stem of the Delaware River is now infested as well.
This is the latest recorded incident of this aquatic nuisance species - also called "rock snot" - in New York State. Didymo has now been verified in the Batten Kill, the East Branch of the Delaware River downstream from the Pepacton Reservoir and the West Branch of the Delaware River downstream Cannonsville Reservoir.
The main stem of the Delaware River is now also considered to be infested due to exposure from its East and West Branch tributaries. Currently, didymo is not known to be present in any other New York waterway.
The Delaware tailwaters are one of the premier trout fisheries on the East Coast, and are a popular destination for large numbers of anglers. The discovery of didymo in these waters is particularly troubling given their proximity to other famous trout streams, notably the Beaver Kill and Willowemoc Creek, and the tendency of anglers to fish multiple streams over the course of a day or weekend.
While didymo does not pose a threat to human health, it can alter stream conditions, choking out many of the organisms that live on the stream bottom, potentially causing a ripple effect up the food chain affecting trout and other fish.
Global Warming to Blame for Brooklyn Tornado? - 08/10/07
Plenty of New York City officials were blaming global warming in the aftermath of a short but violent thunderstorm that paralyzed the largest U.S. mass transit network and tore the roofs off Brooklyn townhouses. But in reality, it is not quite that simple, weather and climate experts say.
The storm, which gathered strength over Pennsylvania, drenched New Jersey and then pounded New York at sunrise Wednesday was strong but not particularly rare for a hot summer day, said Jeff Warner, a meteorologist at Pennsylvania State University, on Thursday.
Climate scientist James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, agreed: "You cannot blame a single specific event, such as this week's storm, on climate change,'' he said.
Plenty of Brooklynites were thinking global warming. What else could be to blame for an honest-to-goodness twister in a place where the word "cyclone'' usually means the roller coaster on Coney Island?
"This is supposed to be a rainfall event that is a once-in-a-decade occurrence -- we've had three in the past seven months,'' Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Thursday, after the tunnels had mostly dried out from the latest deluge. "We've got a serious issue to worry about
