Marine geologist Peter Harris, a 1976 graduate of North Kitsap
High School, has been awarded the prestigious Francis P. Shepard
Medal for Sustained Excellence in Marine Geology.
Peter Harris
The annual award, from the Society for Sedimentary Geology,
recognizes Peter’s 30 years of research accomplishments — “from the
polar to the tropical,” as the judges described it — including his
discovery of new coral reefs off Australia.
Also noteworthy is his work documenting the margins of the
Antarctic continent; describing the prehistoric formation of the
Fly River Delta in Papua New Guinea; and explaining changes in the
“Antarctic bottom water,” a dense water mass surrounding
Antarctica. Peter has published more than 100 research papers in
scientific journals.
After an awards ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah, Peter returned
last week to Kitsap County, where he spoke to me about his current
efforts on upcoming state-of-the-environment report for the United
Nations. He is working on an oceans chapter for the “Sixth Global Environmental
Outlook,” known as GEO-6, which will be used to advance
environmental policies around the world.
“There are so many environmental issues in the ocean,” he told
me, “but we were asked to identify three things that are the most
urgent.”
Taking on the enormous problem of plastic pollution in the
ocean, the European Union is on track to ban single-use items made
of plastic, while communities in Washington state slowly adopt bans
on plastic bags.
Straws are listed as a problem
plastic.
Photo: Horia Varlan, Wikimedia Commons
The European Commission is targeting specific plastic products
that constitute 70 percent of the items found among marine debris
lost in the sea and along the shoreline. Cotton swabs, plastic
cutlery, plates, drinking cups and straws are among the items that
would be banned outright, because non-plastic alternatives are
available.
The proposal announced this week goes well beyond those items,
however, calling for a 90-percent reduction in plastic drink-bottle
waste, possibly through a deposit system. In addition, plans are
underway for new waste-disposal programs, ongoing cleanups, and
educational efforts designed to reduce the purchase of and
encourage the proper disposal of food containers, plastic wrappers,
cigarette butts, wet wipes, balloons and fishing gear.
Manufacturers of plastic products would help fund those various
programs, according to the proposal.
NOAA’s annual Marine Debris Art Contest continues to attract
creative students able to spread the message about how loose trash
can escape into the ocean and harm sea creatures.
Zilan C., a Michigan
second-grader, was one of 13 winners in this year’s Marine Debris
Art Contest.
Image: Courtesy of NOAA
“The ocean is the ocean animals’ home, not a trash can,” writes
Zilan C., a Michigan second-grader who drew the first picture on
this page. “Everyone should keep the debris out of the ocean and
save the ocean animals’ home!”
“Plastics, rubber, paper and other lost or discarded items enter
the ocean and lakes everyday,” said Yufei F., a Michigan fifth
grader who created the second piece. “Everyone can do our part in
reducing and preventing marine debris. We can also join in cleaning
the beach and clean our streets. When everyone takes action, we can
keep our ocean clean.”
After two years of near-record rainfall across the Kitsap
Peninsula, precipitation has returned to a more normal pattern.
Halfway through the water year, which begins in October,
rainfall in Hansville, Silverdale and Holly are all within 10
percent of the average for this time of year, according to weather
instruments managed by Kitsap Public Utility District.
This near-average total for the first half of the year comes
about despite a very wet November, when Hansville broke the
all-time record for precipitation for that month. Since then, the
monthly rainfall numbers have been mostly below average, except for
a wet January when Holly nearly broke the record for that
month.
As we’ve seen time and again, the amount of rainfall decreases
dramatically as one travels from south to north on the Kitsap
Peninsula. That’s the general pattern for all times of the year,
although the amount of precipitation can vary wildly.
Hansville received 25.5 inches for the six months ending April
1, compared to a 28-year average of 23.1 inches for that period.
Last year, the six-month figure was 7 inches higher at 32.5 inches,
and the first half of 2016 went down in the record books with a
total of 37.0 inches.
Silverdale posted 35.1 inches of rain by April 1, compared to a
28-year average of 38.1 inches for this time of year. Last year,
this Central Kitsap area received 51.7 inches by April, and in 2016
the number was 52.3 inches, second only to 1999 with 69.8
inches.
In rainswept Holly, residents experienced 68.7 inches by April
1, compared to a 27-year average of 65.0 inches. By April 1 last
year, Holly was practically swimming with 95.9 inches, driven by
24.0 inches during the month of October 2016 and 21.8 inches the
next month. But nothing compares to the first half of water year
1999, when Holly received 120 inches for the first half of the
year. Following a fairly dry summer, water year 1999 in Holly ended
with 127.5 inches of precipitation.
NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has projected somewhat
higher-than-average rainfall through the end of this month in the
Pacific Northwest, followed by fairly average conditions going into
summer. Forecasters rely heavily on observations about temperatures
in the Pacific Ocean, which influence a natural cycle known as the
El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. See video this page.
A very strong El Niño during 2015 and 2016 (associated with the
much-discussed “blob”) shifted into a weak La Niña in 2017.
Conditions have now reversed course again and seem to be headed
toward neutral. La Niñas are generally associated with cooler and
wetter weather for our region of the country, while El Niños
suggest warmer and dryer conditions — although it does not always
turn out that way.
Neutral conditions are expected to arrive by summer, and some
forecasters predict that the warmer El Niño could arrive toward the
end of the water year in September, according to information
released today by
the Climate Prediction Center.
“Some of the computer models are forecasting development of El
Niño by next fall,” noted research scientist Emily Becker in a new
post on the
ENSO Blog, “but there are a number of reasons why we’re not
completely taking the bait right now.
“First, forecasts made this time of year tend to be less
successful,” she continued. “Another reason is that, while elevated
subsurface heat content in the spring sometimes precedes the
development of El Niño in the fall, some recent studies have found
that this relationship has not been very reliable over the past two
decades.”
Researchers observed a warming trend in March among subsurface
waters in the Eastern Pacific. Those waters are expected to rise to
the surface over the next few months to potentially neutralize any
cool surface waters that remain. The outcome is likely to be the
end of the current La Niña and possibly the beginning of a new El
Niño, featuring warmer ocean conditions.
In Chicago, it has become a tradition to dye the Chicago River
bright green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, as shown in a
timelapse video featured by
ABC News. But some waterways are naturally green, so I have
posted eight videos from throughout the world to show these natural
wonders.
Huge crowds of people visit the Chicago River each year to see
the color change, which lasts about five hours, according to a
report by Jennifer Wood in
Mental Floss.
At one time, a green dye was used as needed to identify sources
of sewage flowing into the river, Jennifer reports. The result was
an occasional green splotch seen in the river. In 1962, a member of
the local plumbers union thought it would be a good idea to dye the
entire river green for St. Patrick’s Day. It has since become an
annual tradition — although in 1966 the dye was changed to a
nontoxic vegetable-based coloring at the insistence of
environmentalists.
Today, environmentalists are still grumbling about artificially
turning the river green, not so much because of damage to the
ecosystem — which is really unknown — but because the river is much
healthier than it has been in 150 years, according to a report by
Steven Dahlman in Loop North
News.
“I think [it] sends a message to people that the river is not
alive,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of
Friends of the Chicago River. “Dyeing the river green does not
respect that resource.”
In a story written for
Smithsonian magazine, Jennifer Billock reports that no dye is
needed if you really want to enjoy St. Patrick’s Day in or around a
green waterway. The source of the green color varies from one place
to another and may include natural minerals, algae growth or even
optical illusions based on reflections or depth.
Jennifer talked to Rick Stumpf, an oceanographer who said one of
his favorite places is Florida Bay in the Keys, where the green
color is a reflection of seagrass just a few feet underwater.
Our tour of green waterways begins with Lake
Carezza, in South Tyrol, Italy. The lake is fed from
underground springs, and the level of the lake changes with the
seasons.
According to a local fairy tale, a wizard fell in love with a
beautiful water nymph while watching her braid her hair at the edge
of the lake. To get her attention, a witch advised him to dress up
as a jewel merchant and cast a rainbow across the lake. He followed
her instructions except that he forgot to change his clothes. The
water nymph realized his true identity and disappeared into the
lake. In frustration, the wizard destroyed the rainbow, which fell
into the lake, and then he tossed all of his jewels into the water,
leaving the lake with its unusual colors.
Wai-O-Tapu is a lake in an 18-square-mile
geothermal area in New Zealand’s Taupo Volcanic Zone. The green
color of the water, which is somewhat milky and yellowish, is due
to particles of sulfur floating in the water.
The area has been protected as a scenic reserve since 1931 and
includes a tourism attraction known as Wai-O-Tapu Thermal
Wonderland. Marked hiking trails provide visitors access to natural
hot springs and mud pools.
The Verzasca River in Switzerland is a 19-mile
river known for its turquoise-colored water and colorful rocks. The
swift river, which flows into Lake Maggiore, is popular with scuba
divers.
The green colors are provided by natural algae growing in the
water as well as the reflection of vegetation along the
shoreline.
Ambergris Caye, the largest island in Belize,
offers the sea-green colors of a tropical paradise. It is mainstay
for tourists who wish to swim or dive in the Caribbean Sea.
Visitors can enjoy the marine life of Belize Barrier Reef, the
longest reef system in North America, second in the world after the
Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
Blue Spring State Park features the largest
spring on Florida’s St. Johns River, a critical winter refuge for
manatees. To protect the manatees, the spring pool is closed from
Nov. 15 to March 15.
From the pool, a vertical cave plunges down to a room about 90
feet deep. At about 120 feet down, the cave constricts and water
pours swiftly out of the spring, which produces about 165 million
gallons of water per day.
In addition to the pool, the park includes a historic home and
offers boat tours, hiking trails and camping sites.
Lake Quilotoa in Ecuador is a deep crater lake
in the Andes formed by the collapse of a volcano following an
eruption about 600 years ago. The green color is caused by
dissolved minerals.
In five hours, visitors can hike around the volcano’s caldera,
which is about two miles across. Pack mules and guides are
available in and around the village of Quilotoa.
Sproat Lake is located in the center of
Vancouver Island in British Columbia. In addition to lakeside
homes, three provincial parks are located along the shore.
Sproat Lake Provincial Park features a variety of trails,
including one trail that reaches the eastern side of the lake. A
wall of rock carvings, named K’ak’awin, depict mythological
creatures. The age of the petroglyphs is unknown.
Abyss Pool is the name of a hot spring in the
West Thumb Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. In 1883, a
visitor to the park called the pool “a great, pure, sparkling
sapphire rippling with heat.”
The pool is about 50 feet deep. A geyser in the pool had no
record of eruption until 1987, when the first eruption was followed
by several others until June 1992. The eruptions were up to 100
feet high.
If oil companies were secretly interested in drilling off the
Washington coast — which is doubtful — then I suspect that state
and tribal officials scared them off yesterday.
It’s one thing for an oil company to sign a lease with the
federal government. It’s quite another thing to go up against other
sovereign governments determined to use every means to make the
venture unprofitable.
Participants in press
conference, left to right: Attorney General Bob Ferguson; Gus
Gates, Surfrider Foundation; Gina James, Quinault Nation; Larry
Thevik, Dungeness Crab Fisherman’s Association; Gov. Jay Inslee;
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz; Ocean Shores Mayor
Crystal Dingler; and Chad Bowechop, Makah Tribe. (Click to
enlarge)
Photo: Governor’s Office
In a press conference yesterday, Gov. Jay Inslee said the
Legislature could pass laws that establish new taxes or limit the
use of port facilities needed to service oil rigs.
“We could set up our own safety standards, for instance, that
frankly the industry may not be able to meet,” Inslee said. “So,
yes, we have multiple ways. Counties and cities would also have
jurisdiction.
“What I’m saying is that when you have a policy from a president
that is uniformly reviled in the state of Washington both by
Republicans and Democrats, there are so many ways that we have to
stop this — and we’re going to use all of them.”
The entire press conference is shown in the first video
below.
In a
two-page letter to Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, Inslee
wrote, “I urge you in no uncertain terms to respect our local
voices, our state’s laws, and our hard-working families by removing
Washington’s coasts from any subsequent plan your department may
propose to expand oil and gas leasing in this country.”
As Inslee prepared to take another question at the press
conference, Public Lands Commissioner Hillary Franz, who oversees
the state’s forests and aquatic lands, quickly wedged up to the
microphone. She pointed out that Washington state has the authority
to lease — or not — much of the deep-water areas in Puget Sound and
along the coast, including areas used by local ports. The state
would have a say over almost any infrastructure the industry might
need to develop along the shore, she said.
In addition, the state has ownership over vast shellfish
resources, Franz noted, and so state officials would have a clear
interest to protect against any damage that might result.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson said if the leasing plan goes
through, it would be challenged in court on many grounds. Just one
example of a legal violation, he said, is the off-handed way that
the Trump administration exempted the state of Florida from the
leasing plan.
“It was completely arbitrary,” Ferguson said at the press
conference. “It’s a classic example of how this administration
rolls something out; they haven’t thought it through; and they take
an action that we think will help make our case against it.”
Ferguson laid out his legal, moral and practical arguments
against offshore drilling in a long
five-page letter, which included this comment: “The proposal to
open the Pacific Region Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas
leasing is unlawful, unsafe and harmful to the economy and natural
beauty of Washington’s coastline. As Attorney General, my job is to
enforce the law and protect the people, natural resources and
environment of my state, and I will use every tool at my disposal
to do so.”
Chad Bowechop, policy adviser and member of the Makah Tribe,
explained that tribes have legal rights under the treaties to
protect the environment in their native lands. He noted that the
press conference was being held in the very room where legislation
was signed to dispatch a rescue tug at Neah Bay. The bill was the
result of oil spills that had damaged the natural and cultural
resources of the area.
“We’re very proud of our working relationship with the state of
Washington Department of Ecology Spills Program and with the United
States Coast Guard,” he said. “Our basis of objection to this issue
is based on our cultural and spiritual values. Our spiritual values
hold the environment and the ocean resources in spiritual
reverence.”
Drilling, he continued, would be in conflict with the tribe’s
cultural and spiritual values. As a legal trustee of the ocean’s
natural resources, the tribe “will pledge to work closely with the
other resource trustees,” meaning the state and federal governments
to prevent offshore oil drilling.
Early today, Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell appeared on the
Senate floor to protest the oil-drilling proposal. She talked about
the natural resource jobs that would be threatened by drilling
activities. Check out the second video.
Now that Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has asked the Trump
administration to dial back the offshore drilling proposal in his
state, all the West Coast governors stand in opposition to the
drilling plan. In a
press release, Walker said he supports offshore drilling, but
he wants Zinke to focus on the Chukchi and Beaufort seas along with
Cook Inlet.
“I support removal of potential sales in all other Alaska waters
for the 2019 to 2024 program,” he said, “and I will encourage the
Interior Department to include the longstanding exclusions for the
Kaktovik Whaling Area, Barrow Whaling Area, and the 25-mile coastal
buffer in upcoming official state comments on the program.”
Alaska’s congressional delegation, all Republicans, previously
made the same request in a
letter to Zinke. The members are Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan
Sullivan and Rep. Don Young.
Except for three U.S. representatives, Washington’s and Oregon’s
entire congressional delegations — four senators and 12
representatives — signed a
joint letter to Zinke asking that both states be excluded from
further leasing plans.
“The states of Washington and Oregon have made clear through
local, state, and federal action, as well as extensive public
comment, that oil and gas lease sales off the Pacific Coast are not
in the best interest of our economies or environment,” the letter
says. “The Department of the Interior’s proposal to consider
drilling off the states we represent, absent stakeholder support
and directly contradicting economic and environmental factors of
the region, is a waste of time, government resources, and taxpayer
dollars.”
The only Washington-Oregon lawmakers not signing the letter are
Reps. Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, both Republicans
representing nearly all of Eastern Washington, and Rep. Greg
Walden, a Republican representing Eastern Oregon.
The Japanese government is considering the replacement of the
“mother ship” in its fleet of whaling vessels, as part of a
potential expansion of whaling in the Antarctic.
The newspaper
Japan Times today received confirmation that the Japanese
Fishing Agency has requested the equivalent of $910,000 to study
the future of commercial whaling. If approved, the study would
consider ideas for replacing the 30-year-old Nisshin Maru, best
known as the factory ship used for processing whale meat. Japanese
officials collect certain information about the whales and call it
scientific research.
Anti-whaling activists, including Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society, reacted harshly to the news, saying the study
is a sign that the Japanese government not only intends to keep
slaughtering whales but may be on the verge of expanding commercial
operations.
“I will say, that if this replacement floating slaughter house —
this Cetacean Death Star — is built and if it returns to the
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with an increased quota, it will be
strongly, passionately and aggressively opposed,” Watson wrote in a
Facebook
post. “The Whale Wars is not over.”
After problems with finding and pursuing the Japanese whalers
last year, Sea Shepherd did not send any ships into battle this
year. It was the first time in 12 years that Sea Shepherd has
failed to confront the whalers in the Southern Ocean — except for
2014 when the Japanese whalers called off the hunt.
“What we discovered,” Watson said in a
news release last August, “is that Japan is now employing
military surveillance to watch Sea Shepherd ship movements in real
time by satellite, and if they know where our ships are at any
given moment, they can easily avoid us…. We cannot compete with
their military-grade technology.”
Watson said he has also heard that the Japanese military may be
sent to protect the whalers if Sea Shepherd tries to stop them.
Sea Shepherd is not giving up its efforts to protect the whales
in the Southern Ocean, Watson stressed. Instead, the organization
will develop new tactics while calling on the Australian government
to do more to protect the whales.
In December, countries in the European Union and 12 other
nations expressed their opposition to the whaling taking place in
the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, a protected area established by
the International Whaling Commission. Australia and New Zealand,
but not the United States, are among the signatories.
The
“Joint statement against whaling” points out that the
International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that the Japanese
whaling did not meet the basic requirements for scientific studies.
Legitimate research is one of the few exemptions that allow the
killing of whales under the International Convention for the
Regulation of Whaling.
The Japanese called off the whaling the following summer in
Antarctica but started it up again the next year under a new
whaling plan submitted to the International Whaling Commission. The
Japanese government said it would never again place itself under
the jurisdiction of the international court.
The IWC has since questioned the new whaling plans and has
adopted two resolutions calling on the Japanese to halt whaling
until the new scientific plan can be reviewed by the Scientific
Committee of the IWC. Japan objected to the process on procedural
grounds in a
position statement and ignored the international posture,
including the latest
IWC resolution (16-2) in 2016.
Plans to replace or overhaul the Nisshin Maru were first floated
in 2005, according to sources quoted in Japan News.
Nothing happened, however, until this year when the idea was
resurrected by pro-whaling lawmakers in Japan.
The ship was built in 1987 as a trawler and converted to a whale
processor in 1991. Whales harpooned by smaller vessels can be
pulled up a gangway to the deck for slaughter. Up to 1,200 tons of
meat can be stored in a freezer below decks, according to the
newspaper.
“Even though the ship has been painted over, rust that can’t be
hidden stands out,” said an observer quoted in Japan News. “It is
old, aged nearly 100 in human years.”
Some reports said Japanese officials want a ship that could
operate quicker on the high seas to evade Sea Shepherd’s aggressive
actions, which they consider to be terrorism.
About 100 people were said to be on board the Nisshin Maru in
November when the ship departed from Japan’s Innoshima island,
Hiroshima Prefecture, heading for the Southern Ocean. The goal is
to hunt up to 333 minke whales, a quota established by the Japanese
government with no outside approval.
News was breaking yesterday as I completed this blog on offshore
oil drilling. I doubt that anyone was surprised by the reaction of
outrage that followed Secretary Ryan Zinke’s apparently offhanded
and arbitrary decision to exempt Florida from an otherwise
all-coast leasing plan.
All U.S. senators from New England states, Democrats and
Republicans, signed onto legislation to exempt their states from
the drilling plan, while U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-RI, says he
has unanimous bipartisan support for a similar bill in the House.
Now, if they move to include the rest of the East Coast and the
West Coast in the bill, they might have enough votes to pass it.
(See
statement from Rep. David Cicilline.)
Meanwhile, Washington’s Sen. Maria Cantwell, the ranking member
of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, set the stage
yesterday for the inevitable lawsuits that will follow if Zinke
maintains his present course of action. Cantwell said in a
statement that Zinke may have violated the Outer Continental
Shelf Lands Act. Others have said that he may have violated the
Administrative Procedures Act as well (Washington
Examiner).
—–
The Trump administration’s announcement of an open season on
offshore oil drilling all around the edges of the United States has
put some congressional Republicans on the hot seat during a tough
election year.
Opposition to the proposed oil leases along the East Coast is
reflected in the negative comments from Republican governors Larry
Hogan of Maine, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Chris Sununu of New
Hampshire, Henry McMaster of South Carolina and Rick Scott of
Florida. None want to see drilling anywhere off their
shorelines.
Just days after Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced his plan
to issue leases for oil and gas exploration and development nearly
everywhere, he decided to let Florida off the hook — to the relief
of Gov. Scott, who is said to be a close friend of the Trump
administration.
Zinke’s exemption for Florida was announced in a tweet
posted on Twitter, in which he called Scott “a straightforward
leader that can be trusted.”
“President Trump has directed me to rebuild our offshore oil and
gas program in a manner that supports our national energy policy
and also takes into consideration the local and state voice,” Zinke
tweeted. “I support the governor’s position that Florida is unique
and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic
driver. As a result of discussion with Governor Scott’s (sic) and
his leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration of any new
oil and gas platforms.”
It appears that Zinke is admitting that oil and gas development
can harm the local tourism industry. Needless to say, the other
Republican governors also would like a piece of that “support” from
Zinke, as reported in a story by Dan Merica of
CNN News.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Democratic governors and many
members of Congress also oppose the drilling plan — with the
exception of Alaska, where Gov. Bill Walker supports expanded
drilling anywhere he can get it — even into the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge. I discussed the ANWR drilling proposal in
Water Ways on Nov. 16, before approval of the Republican tax
bill.
Democrats in Washington state’s congressional delegation are
unified in their opposition to offshore drilling, and most of them
support legislation that would take the entire matter off the table
for good. They are joined in their opposition by Rep. Dave
Reichert, a Republican from the Eighth District.
“This moves America in the wrong direction and has the potential
to have a negative lasting effect on our oceans as well as the
shorelines of states on these coasts,” Reichert said in a
statement. “Our country is at the forefront of developing
efficient and cost effective alternative energy technologies and we
should continue to support innovation in this area.”
Congressional districts in
Western Washington.
Graphic: govtrack
Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican who represents the Third
District — including coastal areas in Southwest Washington — was a
little more low-key.
“I don’t support offshore oil and gas exploration in states that
don’t want it, and Washington’s citizens have never indicated any
desire to have oil and gas activity off their coast,” she said in a
Facebook
post. “I’m not aware of any active plan to drill off Washington
or Oregon, but I will act to protect our citizens and our coast if
any such effort does arise.”
Other comments on the plan:
Letter
in opposition (PDF 974 kb) from 109 U.S. representatives,
including Washington’s Suzan DelBene, 1st District; Derek Kilmer,
6th District; Pramila Jayapal, 7th District; Dave Reichert, 8th
District; Adam Smith, 9th District; and Denny Heck, 10th
District.
Rep. Derek Kilmer, Sixth District: “For decades, Democrats and
Republicans have agreed that opening our waters up to drilling
would be shortsighted and wrong. Doing so could threaten our
fisheries, shellfish growers, tourism, and jobs in other key
sectors of our economy.”
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell: “This draft proposal is
an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input,
and we object to sacrificing public trust, community safety, and
economic security for the interests of the oil industry.”
With substantial opposition from all sides, the looming question
is whether Congress will allow the leasing program to move forward
before expiration of the existing five-year
plan for offshore drilling (PDF 34 mb), which ends in 2022 and
focuses mostly on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
While the California Coast remains a key target for oil
companies, it is unlikely that we will ever see oil rigs off the
Washington Coast, no matter what happens with the leasing program.
Oil and gas resources simply aren’t known to be there, according to
all published data.
During the 1960s, 10 exploratory wells were drilled with no
significant finds off the coast of Washington and Oregon, according
to a 1977 report by the U.S.
Geological Survey (PDF 10.2 mb). Some 14 other wells were
drilled without result offshore near Vancouver Island in Canada.
Many more onshore wells have been drilled without major success
throughout the region.
In 2008, I explored the idea of offshore drilling in Washington
state when the George W. Bush administration attempted to lift the
offshore-drilling moratorium.
“We would probably be last, or next to last,” state geologist
Ray Lasmanis told me in a story for the
Kitsap Sun. “The geology is too broken up, and it does not have
the kind of sedimentary basins they have off the coast of
California.”
Officials told me at the time that even if oil companies were
given free rein, they would not line up to drill off our coast.
“It is important to note that, at least here on the West Coast,
that it will take more than lifting the congressional moratorium,”
said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum
Association. “In addition to state and local constraints, a number
of marine sanctuaries would restrict development.”
Gov. Jay Inslee, who was a U.S. representative at the time, said
offshore drilling was a diversion, because much better alternatives
exist on land. Because of climate change, Inslee was pushing
Congress to encourage renewable energy sources, as he continues to
do today as governor.
“Drilling offshore,” he told me, “is doomed to failure. I’m not
opposed to drilling. We accept massive drilling on federal land.
But the danger is we’ll get wrapped around the minutia of the
drilling issue … and we’re still going to be addicted to oil.”
The latest proposal by the Department of Interior is subject to
public hearings, including one scheduled in Tacoma on Feb. 5. Check
out the full schedule
of 23 hearings.
Understanding the chemistry of Puget Sound may be as important
as understanding the biology. Let me put that another way: Biology
as we know it in Puget Sound wouldn’t exist without the right
chemistry.
Tiny krill, one of many
organisms affected by ocean acidification, demonstrate how water
chemistry can affect the entire Puget Sound food web. For example,
krill are eaten by herring, which are eaten by Chinook salmon,
which are eaten by killer whales.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Ocean acidification is altering the chemistry of the oceans on a
worldwide scale, but the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound are
being hit with some of the most severe problems, as experts point
out in a new report by the Washington
State Marine Resources Advisory Council.
For years, I have written about the low-oxygen problems in Hood
Canal and other areas of Puget Sound. Of course, oxygen is
essential to life as we know it. Major fish kills, in which dead
fish float to the surface, have generated a lot of attention. At
the same time, it has been harder to report on the animals dying
from lack of oxygen when their carcasses are at rest in deep water.
And it has been nearly impossible to keep track of the “dead zones”
that come and go as conditions change.
It wasn’t until more research was conducted on the effects of
ocean acidification that researchers realized that low-oxygen
conditions — which were bad enough — had a dangerous companion
called low pH — the increased acidity that we are talking about.
Low pH can affect the growth and even the survival of organisms
that build shells of calcium, including a variety of tiny organisms
that play key roles in the food web.
As the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the air, we see an
increase in carbonic acid in the water, which has an effect on the
ability of organisms to take up calcium carbonate. For a more
complete explanation, check out “What is aragonite saturation?” on
page
17 of the report.
Increased acidification is a special problem for Washington and
the West Coast of North America, where deep acidified water in the
Pacific Ocean hits the coast and rises to the surface.
“By accident of geography, we have this upwelling that … forces
us into dealing with ocean acidification before almost anywhere
else on the planet,” said Jay Manning, chairman of the Puget Sound
Leadership Council. “I don’t believe I’m exaggerating when I say
that Washington is leading the world in terms of science and
monitoring…”
Jay, who serves on the Marine Resources Advisory Council, was
quoted in a story I wrote for the
Puget Sound Institute, later republished by the
Kitsap Sun. The story describes some of the problems resulting
from ocean acidification in Puget Sound, where an entirely
different mechanism connects ocean acidification closely to
low-oxygen conditions.
Researchers have concluded that an excessive growth of plankton
in Puget Sound can be triggered, in part, by the release of
nutrients from sewage treatment plants, septic systems and the
heavy use of fertilizers. When plankton die and decay, bacteria use
up oxygen while releasing carbon dioxide, thus increasing
acidification.
Although the details still need to be sorted out, it is clear
that some creatures are more sensitive than others to low oxygen,
while low pH also affects animals in different ways. This “double
whammy” of low oxygen and low pH increases the risks to the entire
food web, without even considering the added threats of higher
temperatures and toxic pollution.
Ongoing actions emphasized in the new report fall into six
categories:
Reduce carbon emissions
Cut back on nutrient releases into the water
Improve adaptation strategies to reduce the harmful effects of
ocean acidification
Invest in monitoring and scientific investigations
Inform, educate and engage Washington residents and key
decision makers
Maintain a coordinated focus on all aspects of ocean
acidification
“The updated report reinforces our federal, state and tribal
partnership to combat ocean acidification by working together,
modifying and expanding on approaches we have developed through
ongoing research,” said Libby Jewett, director of NOAA’s Ocean
Acidification Program in a news
release (PDF 166 kb).
“For instance,” she continued, “in the new plan, scientists in
the state of Washington will be asked not only to test hands-on
remediation options which involve cultivating kelp as a way to
remove carbon dioxide from local waters but also to explore how to
move this seaweed into land agriculture as a way of recycling
it.”
“Global and local carbon dioxide emissions, as well as local
nutrient sources beyond natural levels, are significantly altering
seawater chemistry. We are the cause for the rapid accumulation of
30 to 50 percent of the enriched CO2 in surface waters in Puget
Sound and 20 percent of enriched CO2 in deep waters off our shores.
Washingtonians understand what is so dramatically at stake. We are
not standing by waiting for someone else to inform or rescue
us.”
A new report from the American Meteorological Society makes a
rather stunning statement about climate change. For the first time,
researchers have concluded that specific weather-related events
could not have happened without the influence of climate change
caused by human activity.
Three events studied in 2016 were so extreme that they did not
fit into the context of natural climate conditions, according to
researchers working on separate projects. One involved the global
heat record for 2016; another was focused on warmth across Asia;
and the third was the “blob” of warm ocean water familiar to folks
who follow weather in the Pacific Northwest.
A “blob” of warm water off the
Northwest coast from 2013 to the end of 2016 could not have
occurred without human-induced climate change, experts say.
Map: NOAA’s Earth System Research
Laboratory
“This report marks a fundamental change,” said Jeff Rosenfeld,
editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological
Society, in a
news release. “For years scientists have known humans are
changing the risk of some extremes. But finding multiple extreme
events that weren’t even possible without human influence makes
clear that we’re experiencing new weather, because we’ve made a new
climate.”
Personally, I did not expect to see this sort of demonstrable
statement about man-made climate change anytime soon. In classes
and seminars on the subject of climate change, I’ve often seen
lecturers present frequency curves that show the number of times
that certain weather-related phenomena — such as temperatures or
rainfall — are observed over a given time.
We’re told by climatologists that many of these curves are
steadily shifting, so that fairly extreme conditions occur more
often and truly extreme conditions emerge for the very first time
in certain locations.
Researchers are loathe to say that a given storm, drought or
hurricane is the result of climate change. They would rather say
climate change affects the likelihood of extreme weather events,
plotted at the end of the frequency curve. In the realm of
statistics, there is a tendency to hold onto the idea that almost
any kind of weather could occur almost anytime, provided that a
perfect storm of conditions line up together.
“First, it is important to note that climate scientists have
been predicting that … the influence of human-caused climate change
would at some point become sufficiently strong and emergent to push
an extreme event beyond the bounds of natural variability alone,”
state the six editors in an introduction to the report.
“It was also anticipated that we would likely first see this
result for heat events where the human-caused influences are most
strongly observed,” they continue. “It is striking how quickly we
are now starting to see such results, though their dependence on
model-based estimates of natural variability … will require ongoing
validation …”
In other words, the conclusion comes from computer models that
can analyze the probability of an extreme event taking place when
greenhouse gases are found at different concentrations. Results
using today’s observed conditions are compared with results using
conditions before the industrial release of greenhouse gases.
In the three highlighted papers, the researchers calculated the
“fraction of attributable risk,” or FAR, for the extreme event they
were studying. FAR is a statistical approach used in epidemiology
to measure the likelihood of an event under various conditions. For
explanations, see
Boston University School of Public Health and the
2007 IPCC report.
“All three papers concluded that the FAR was 1, meaning that the
event was not possible in the ‘control’ planet and only possible in
a world with human-emitted greenhouse gases,” the editors say.
Although this is the first time that researchers have concluded
that extreme events could not have happened without human-induced
climate change, the editors are quick to point out that the same
phenomenon may have occurred unnoticed in the past on a smaller
geographic scale.
These findings do not mean that the climate has reached any kind
of tipping point. It simply adds to the evidence that mounting
weather extremes are not the result of natural processes.
Reporters Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich of the
New York Times do a nice job of delving into the concept of
attribution science while mentioning five of the extreme events
covered in the new report. They quoted Heidi Cullen, chief
scientist at Climate Central, which produces news stories about
climate issues.
“In 2011, people were still of the mind-set that you couldn’t
attribute any individual event to climate change,” Cullen said.
“But with each subsequent issue (of the BAMS report), people are
able to say that climate change really is increasing the risk” that
extremes will occur.
