UPfirst.com Editorials

Michaeleen and Todd Carter
UPfirst.com Owners

Entries include editorials and clean green news with web links

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July 21, 2008	Former Vice President Al Gore made a stellar appearance on Meet the Press Sunday. He introduced his Climate Change “Solution Summits” aimed at forming a “sea change in public opinion” by an “enlarging of the political process.” Visit UPfirst.com Solution Summits group at Al Gore’s www.wecansolveit.org for Upper Peninsula events about climate change and renewable energies
July 8, 2008 Public education needed for adaptation to climate change	Preliminary review of adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Released June 20, 2008 U.S. Climate Change Science Program Selected Quotes: Climate change requires new patterns of thinking and greater agility in management planning and activities in order to respond to the inherent uncertainty of the challenge (page 5). Maladaptation—adaptation that does not succeed in reducing vulnerability but increases it instead—must be avoided (page 38). Society can adapt to climate change through technological solutions and infrastructure, through behavioral choices (altered food and recreational choices), through land management practices, and through planning responses (Johnson and Weaver, in press). Although federal resource management agencies will tend to adapt by altering management policies, the effectiveness of those policies will be constrained by or enhanced by all of the other societal responses. In general, the federal government’s authority over national parks, national forests, and other public resources is most likely to remain effective if management is aligned with the public’s well-being and perception of well-being. Experienced resource managers recognize this and regularly invest in public education. This means that education and communication regarding managing for adaptation needs just as much attention as does the science of adaptation (page 39). The specific recommendations for adaptation that emerge from studies of national forests, national parks, national wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, national estuaries, and marine protected areas will not take root unless there is leadership at the highest level to address climate adaptation (page 39). See Also: U.S. Climate Change Science Program Brochure: Climate Change and Ecosystems Summary of Recent Findings
June 28, 2008 North Pole ice-free this summer?	North Pole could be ice-free this summer, scientists say “Those who suggest that the Arctic meltdown is just part of a historic cycle are wrong.” CNN.com/world June 27, 2008
June 28, 2008 “Climate Science At a Loss” at Sciencemag.org	Climate Science At a Loss Sea-ice coverage in the Arctic plummeted in the summer of 2007 to levels never before observed, surprising even experts who had witnessed the decades-long decline and predicted that the ice pack would continue to shrink at an increasingly rapid rate. Why did so much ice disappear? Zhang et al. conducted a retrospective modeling study of the evolution of Arctic sea-ice coverage and found that preconditioning, anomalous winds, and ice-albedo feedback were responsible for most of the retreat. Years of warming climate there preconditioned the ice for disappearance by thinning it significantly, pushing it ever closer to the point of complete melting, while stronger than normal winds pushed unusually large amounts out of the Arctic basin. The ice thinning and exposure of open water that these processes caused left the remaining ice even more susceptible than normal to loss due to heating of the upper ocean, increasing the intensity of the positive ice-albedo feedback and accelerating the rate of ice loss. Once summer had passed and temperatures had dropped low enough for ice to begin to regrow, 10% more ice than usual had vanished, 70% of it due to melting and 30% due to ice advection. The large ice loss, coupled with prevailing climate trends, suggests that Arctic sea ice has become particularly vulnerable to anomalous atmospheric forcing. — HJS Geophys. Res. Lett. 10.1029/2008GL034005 (2008). 30 May 2008 Vol 320 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org
June 19, 2008 “Go get ‘em!”	It is a week of epic flooding along the Mississippi, including injury, loss of life, and damages estimated at over $1 billion in Iowa alone. John McCain’s current TV commercial features him as one who “stood up to the President and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago.” Al Gore joined Barack Obama’s change campaign at a rally in Detroit. Today NOAA released Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate (US Climate Change Science Program). The world’s heart went out to Tim Russert’s family. “Timmy’s” beloved ones, including his son Luke, echoed his famous slogan: “Go get ‘em!” Here’s to Tim Russert: May his star forever shine!
June 18, 2008 Why give up our precious bucks for a stack of messy newspapers?	The Newspaper Association of America Total Paid Circulation Report shows newspaper circulations sliding downhill yearly since 1993. The number of daily newspapers has been steadily decreasing since 1940. By 2006, declining daily newspaper circulations slipped way back to 1948 figures. The Internet frontier is overtaking newspaperland. This week, we chose not to renew our local daily newspaper subscription. We also discontinued our newspaper business advertising, since our UPfirst.com platform effectively draws in and informs our customers. We will save about $1000 per year by leaving newspaperland behind. Why give up our precious bucks, for a stack of messy newspapers, when we can get clean online news for free?
June 6-14, 2008	Climate Change Discussion in Marquette, Michigan
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