'Green' governors, a warmer lake, and Al

This week's climate change media update notes states' efforts, Lake Superior's temperature, and the green hue of this year's Oscars.

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the March 1, 2007 edition

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States, increasingly seen as America's laboratories for seeking and testing policies for curbing greenhouse gases, continued to forge ahead with efforts to police carbon emissions. But they also seem to be aware that the power of one has limits, and maybe even competitive disadvantages. Voilá! A regional agreement.

Such an approach to global warming is needed because the federal government has failed to take a tough approach, said five Western governors Monday, who took first steps to tackle the issue regionally, the Financial Times reported.

Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Democrats Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Theodore Kulongoski of Oregon, Christine Gregoire of Washington, and Janet Napolitano of Arizona unveiled a plan to set regional standards for carbon-dioxide emissions, track and manage greenhouse gases, and operate a cap-and-trade emissions system for businesses, The Washington Post wrote. Their effort follows an agreement by seven Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states in 2005 to limit greenhouse gases from utility plants.

"In the absence of meaningful federal action, it is up to the states to take action to address climate change and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in this country," said Governor Napolitano, chair of the National Governors Association in a press release. "Western states are being particularly hard-hit by the effects of climate change."

One answer, NASA climatologist James Hansen told journalists Monday, is no more coal-fired power plants.

"There should be a moratorium on building any more coal-fired power plants until the technology to capture and sequester the [carbon-dioxide emissions] is available. This is a hard proposition that no politician is willing to stand up and say it's necessary."

The waters of Lake Superior are warming up earlier in the year, says Jay Austin, a researcher with the University of Minnesota-Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory. Water temperatures are rising almost twice as fast as air temperatures. As a result, spring turnover, when warmer water layers on top of colder water, has moved up from early July to mid-June, which could affect plants and fish, the Associated Press said.

Even small blips in temperature can put organisms on the move, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. "Incremental temperature changes have begun to redraw the distribution of bacteria, insects, and plants, exposing new populations to diseases that they have never seen before," the paper reported.

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