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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
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Politics West: "Gov. Bill Ritter celebrated Earth Day beneath an unblemished blue sky this morning by enacting several major pieces of his Climate Action Plan, including a statewide greenhouse gas emissions reduction standard. The standard, which Ritter codified in one of three executive orders he signed at a ceremony this morning, establishes a goal of a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions statewide by 2020 and an 80 percent reduction by 2050. The order tells the state Department of Public Health and Environment to come up with requirements for the state's largest greenhouse gas emitters, like power plants and factories, to measure and report their emissions."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:41:09 PM 
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Unbossed: "Last week, six New Mexico conservation groups and the Western Environmental Law Center filed a protest with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the April 16, 2008 sale of eighty-three oil and gas leases in New Mexico totaling nearly 103,000 acres.
"Why is this a big deal?
"This protest is groundbreaking. As far as I know, a protest of oil and gas leases based on the effects of climate change has never before been attempted.
"This is a big deal."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:09:32 PM
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Today is Earth Day. Hug a tree, take in some of the early blooming flowers and trees around town, on your bike ride to work or school. Pears are in their glory. Don't miss the Saucer Magnolias between 45th and 46th on Wolfe Street up in North Denver. Resolve to lower your vehicle miles travelled and electricity consumption. Be smarter with water.
To that end here's an article on computing, and lowering, your water footprint, from The Independent. They write:
Ethical shopping just got harder - but the latest attempt to help conscientious consumers calculate their impact on the environment could do more to preserve scarce resources than all its predecessors. The concept of water footprints - or "virtual water" - will tell consumers the amount of precious H2O that has been used in the manufacture of products they buy. As with carbon footprints, a "virtual water" figure will indicate the extent to which a particular product has cost the earth. And, as with carbon footprints, the message is clear: less is better. A new website run by the University of Twente in the Netherlands, waterfootprint.org, gives ethically minded consumers a chance to work out the hidden implications of their shopping habits. Common commodities including groceries, clothes, stationery and electrical goods are evaluated according to a water footprint calculator. In each case, the water footprint covers both the manufacture and transport of the goods.
The results are striking. An apple weighing 100g has a water footprint of 70 litres, while a 125ml cup of coffee has a water footprint twice that size, 140 litres. But the water used in producing wheat or meat is much greater. A single kilogram of barley has a water footprint of 1,300 litres, while the industrial production of a kilogram of beef amasses a water footprint of 15,500 litres. Poultry, meanwhile, has a smaller water footprint than red meat: producing a kilogram of chicken meat leaves a comparably much smaller water footprint of 3,900 litres. Academics behind the "virtual water" calculations have also created a worldwide league table for the water footprint of different countries. The US is the biggest offender, with a water footprint of close to 2,500 cubic metres per year per capita, while Italy is a close second. Britain's water footprint is relatively modest at 1,245 cubic metres per year per capita. The calculations are fiendishly complicated. But if they prove popular, calculations of water footprints could do much more to help minimise the environmental impact of consumption than other, similar schemes.
Category: Climate Change News
6:19:34 AM
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From The Loveland Reporter Herald: "Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction will conduct a meeting at the Pulliam Building, 545 N. Cleveland Ave. in Loveland, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The meeting is intended to provide information about a proposal to mine uranium in Northern Colorado, according to an announcement from the group. The meeting will also cover legislation under consideration in the Colorado legislature to increase water protection in areas where uranium is mined."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:05:05 AM
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Aurora has approved an intergovernmental agreement to study the effects of climate change with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, according to The Aurora Sentinel. From the article:
Aurora City Council on Monday night, April 21, approved spending for a study on the impact of climate change on the local water supply. The intergovernmental agreement between Aurora and the Colorado Water Conservation Board will draw an initial contribution of $48,000 from the city, with half of that sum to be reimbursed by the CWC after the study is approved in July. The statewide study, titled the Joint Front Range Climate Change Vulnerability Study, will examine the impact of increases in temperatures on local stream flows and water reservoirs. The project will involve collaboration with Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Denver and state water conservancy organizations. The total cost from all participants in the study is estimated at $379,900...
The resolution earned the majority's approval during the April 21 regular session, with Councilwoman Molly Markert providing the lone voice of dissent. "If you're asking this amount of money, I think we deserve a typical budget that specifies what we're getting for our expenditures," she said, citing the absence of an itemized cost tally. "I don't think my constituents need to spend that kind of money. I think the value to the city is in question."
Category: Colorado Water
6:00:07 AM
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From The Denver Post: "Gov. Bill Ritter on Monday signed into law a significant revision to Colorado's water law to allow water-rights holders to leave some of their water in the river without penalty...The bill signed Monday -- House Bill 1280 -- lets water-rights holders lease a portion of their rights to the Colorado Water Conservation Board without fear of losing those rights. 'This is a good way to avoid the use-or-lose proposition of consumptive use,' Ritter said. 'At the end of the day, it really does make a difference.' Environmental and sportsmen groups say fuller rivers promote greater ecosystem health and pump millions more into the state's economy because of more-robust rafting and fishing tourism."
Update: Here's the coverage from The Durango Herald.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
Category: Colorado Water
5:52:55 AM
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© Copyright
2008
John Orr.
Last update:
5/1/08; 7:46:40 AM.
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