The Species Groups That Are Proportionally Most In Danger (the Proportion Of Species Within That Grouping

Oyster reefs are in rough shape over much of the world, threatened by over-harvesting in combination with pressures from exotic species (including disease) and pollution. This means those coastal areas are losing the valuable ecosystem services, such as water filtration and protection from storm surges, oyster reefs provide.

Source:

Beck, M. W., Brumbaugh, R. D., Airoldi, L., Carranza, A., Coen, L. D., Crawford,

C.,…Guo, X. (2011). Oyster reefs at risk and recommendations for conservation,

restoration, and management. BioScience, 61(2), 107-116. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/bio.2011.61.2.5

In the U.S., clean energy and carbon pollution regulation are very popular. What is the disconnect between public opinion on these issues, and Federal actions?

Based on a survey of 144 climate change economists performed by the Institute for Policy Integrity at the New York University School of Law, response to: "Placing a “price on carbon” through a tax or cap‐and‐trade system will increase incentives for energy efficiency and the development of lower carbon energy production."

Other interesting results:

84% agreed or strongly agreed that “the environmental effects of greenhouse gas emissions... create significant risks to important sectors of the United States and global economies.”

91.6% preferred or strongly preferred “market‐based mechanisms, such as a carbon tax or cap‐and‐trade system” over command‐and‐control regulation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The annual energy potential of renewable versus nonrenewable energy sources

Demand for ivory in Asian markets is driving illegal elephant poaching, with China posing the greatest threat.

California's climate change law (AB 32), which puts a price on carbon emissions and creates a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is yielding substantial reductions in emissions from oil refineries. These refineries are a major source of carbon emissions, along with a host of other toxic chemicals like ammonia, lead, benzene, mercury and acid gases.

Data from the California Air Resources Board shows that 11 refineries substantially reduced emissions between 2010 and 2011, in addition to cuts in the release of other toxic pollutants. Evidence shows that these reductions not a result of cuts in production, but to refineries investing in and upgrading equipment in response to AB 32. An example is Valero’s refinery in Benicia, CA, which decreased covered emissions by over 95,000 metric tons, while also cutting ammonia emissions by 98%, sulfuric acid by 84%, and benzene by 49%, through the installation of a new flue gas scrubber.

The reduction in CO2 emissions from the energy sector in the U.S. over the past 5 years (see previous post) was due in large part to a reduction in emissions from coal. In 2009, the financial collapse led to diminished use of all fuel sources and greenhouse gas reductions across the board. Since then, the expanding use of natural gas has increased it's carbon footprint, but the decline in the use of coal and the subsequent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions associated with coal is remarkable. Coal is the most carbon-rich fossil fuel, so any declines from that source is good news for the climate.

...and lizards, a quarter of which are threatened.

Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula in 1984, 1995, 2006, and 2016.

Over the last three decades, with the logging industry on the decline, once-logged areas on the peninsula are seeing forest regrowth. Note the return of forests along the western and southern boundaries of the Olympic Mountains.

But as Douglas Scott notes, “While environmentalists will look at these images and beam with pride that the logging seems to have slowed, there is still work to be done. The collapse of the logging industry has caused economic issues around the Peninsula that have been ignored for decades. Logging was what you did if you lived out in Grays Harbor or on the Peninsula and today, there are few jobs outside of the service industry. While the trees have grown back, the badmouthing and down talking to logging communities has created a deep divide that needs to be healed.”