Environment

Tom Wessels to speak in Pawling on March 3

by Carola Lott

“Oblong Land Conservancy's First Saturdays,” cosponsored by the Dutchess Land Conservancy and Oblong Land Conservancy, will begin on March 3rd with a talk by Tom Wessels.

Wessels will speak about his concept of “forest forensics.” This method uses evidence such as the shapes of trees, scars on their trunks, the pattern of decay in stumps, the construction of stone walls, and the lay of the land to interpret the history of a particular forest.

A Journey to the Universe

Conceiving of a new story of the universe is a tall order. But that is what a small group of physicists, philosophers and cultural historians are doing in order to stem the tide of species destruction which they see happening all around us.

Inspired by the great cultural historian, Thomas Berry (he sometimes called himself a geologian) Mary Evelyn Tucker and evolutionary philosopher Brian Swimme produced a film Journey to the Universe that was screened at the Cary Institute last Friday, February 10. The film and the lecture by Tucker melds science and the sacred in a poetic and inspiring way that actually may help trigger a new way of looking at the big picture.

This article appeared in the February 15 edition of the paper.

Warming Trend to Accelerate Near Term, Say Scientists

by Tom Parrett

For those of us reared before the 1970s, childhood unfolded in a procession of seasons. Each had a distinct character. Transitions between them were tender trends.

Then, incongruity. Cross-country skis stayed in the garage. Slopes not dressed by snow-making tended to stay brown. A couple of summers wilted crops and exposed streambeds—not inconceivable, but still. Spring and fall shrank to mere days.

In retrospect, such flux was symptomatic of global warming. Now, as warming has continued and underlying influences scientists call “forcings” have come to bear, a third pattern is emerging, if one can pardon the term pattern. Surprise is the order of this new day—this winter’s record-shattering warmth being but one example. Local weather forecasting seems at times to resemble spinning a roulette wheel, so regional and national trends and probabilities are the new measures of accuracy. Meteorologists, many still skeptical of climatology, are—whether they realize it or not—fighting a rear-guard action.

Predicting Chaos

Shoreline Highrises to take a swim;

Pilkey at Cary says oceans are rising

Some 400 years ago Galileo was tried for heresy because he held that the earth revolved around the sun. This view did not accord with the revealed truth as written in Genesis nor with the prevailing beliefs of his time. The Church called him a heretic and he was placed under house arrest.

In the 2012, some four hundred years later, science is telling us that the earth is warming and that serious consequences will follow. The scientists are doubted, conspiracy theories abound. Republicans have unofficially adopted a contrary opinion, and what science is telling us is rebuked, reviled and ridiculed.

Recent Extreme Weather Presages New Climate

by Tom Parrett

IT won’t surprise you to learn that some of the bizarre weather lately is not normal. In fact, it’s far enough beyond normal to be the harbinger of a new climate.

Looking at the severe drought in the nation’s southwest and the terrible heat-caused fires near Moscow in the summer of 2010, Dr. James Hansen, Makiko Sato and Reto Ruedy have used masses of data, statistics and ultra-fast computers to determine that these events stand so far beyond the realm of normality they were outliers.* But not irrelevant outliers: exceptions mostly in one direct direction—that of global warming. And they were far from alone.

Dr. Hansen, long-time head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been described as the Robert Oppenheimer of climate science. A quarter-century ago, he was the first to tell Congress about the dangers of a planet being warmed unnaturally because of man.

Heads Up DEC

by Tom Parrett

Among the 40,000-some comments provided to the DEC for the purpose of influencing its fracking rules is a 26-page submission from its colleagues in Washington, at the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Like some of us, EPA just beat the deadline.

You might remember that Congress asked the EPA to look into the environmental consequences of fracking, and the EPA has been hard at work along several paths. Many voices have urged the State to delay its rules until the EPA provides its results, which will apparently come in two stages, but neither before later this year and the final perhaps not until 2014.

Final comments for the NYDEC 2011 Draft SGEIS on Hydrofracking

by Tom Parrett

New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation imposed a deadline of January 11 for comments from the public on its latest Environmental Impact Statement for the gas-extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. More than 21,000 comments have been received—by far a record for a State issue. The most contentious matters of the past generated 1,000 comments. The DEC will now absorb these comments and then issue regulations—or delay the process yet again, as many hope.

GENERAL

Observation: It is inescapable throughout the 2011 DEIS that the industry and the NY DEC have close ties. To some extent this is inevitable and even valuable for citizens of New York State, in that the highest level of expertise and experience can be brought to bear on their behalf.

Environment

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