What's Up In Climate Change? Wisconsin joins the silence, thawing permafrost seeps CO2 and Vancouver goes clean

Friday, April 10, 2015, 5:27 PM - Wisconsin goes 'silent' on climate change, permafrost looks to 'seep, not explode' CO2 as it thaws and Vancouver commits to 100 per cent renewable energy. It's what's up in climate change!

Don't Talk About Climate Change

First Florida, now Wisconsin. State governments in the US appear to be handling the threat of climate change by not handling it at all.

According to Bloomberg News:

A vote on Tuesday by Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, a three-member panel overseeing an agency that benefits schools and communities in the state, enacted the staff ban on climate change. "It's not a part of our sole mission, which is to make money for our beneficiaries," said State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, a Republican who sits on the board. "That’s what I want our employees working on. That’s it. Managing our trust funds."
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The move to ban an issue leaves staff at the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands in the unusual position of not being able to speak about how climate change might affect lands it oversees. "Having been on this board for close to 30 years, I’ve never seen such nonsense," [Wisconsin Secretary of State Douglas] La Follette said in the conference call on Tuesday. He voted against the measure. "We've reached the point now where we’re going to try to gag employees from talking about issues. In this case, climate change. That’s as bad as the governor of Florida recently telling his staff that they could not use the words 'climate change.'"

Good News About Thawing Permafrost

Stone rings of permafrost in the Svalbard region, northernmost Norway. Credit: Hannes Grobe

It's not often that we get a chance to read some good news when it comes to climate change, but sometimes studies give at least a brief ray of sunshine.

One new study published in the journal Nature has taken a close look at all the past research on permafrost thawing and the release of carbon trapped in the soil (either as CO2 or methane), to produce the best indication yet of exactly how this carbon may be released due to the permafrost feedback loop. This feedback loop is caused by melting permafrost releasing these gases, which warm the environment, causing more permafrost melting and more greenhouse gases to be released, and so on.

According to Climate Central:

How much carbon will be released, however, and how much extra warming is likely to result, has been a matter of dispute in recent years. Some researchers have argued that that the effects will be horrific, while others say they’ll be significant but less dramatic. And now, a new report in Nature — the most comprehensive study ever done on the permafrost feedback loop, has come down firmly in the “significant” camp. “The permafrost carbon is not going to explode into the atmosphere catastrophically within just a few years,” Ted Schuur, a permafrost expert at Northern Arizona University, said. “It’s more like it will seep out slowly in small amounts in a very large number of places.”

Vancouver Doubles-Down On Green Commitments

Vancouver and English Bay. Credit: Wikipedia

The city of Vancouver may be dealing with a potentially toxic fuel oil spill in English Bay this week, but that hasn't prevented the city's government from taking steps to secure their continued ranking as the greenest city in Canada, and to go for the world title as well.

According to Climate Progress:

On March 26, Vancouver's city council voted unanimously to approve Mayor Gregor Robertson's motion calling for a long-term commitment to deriving all of the city's energy from renewable sources. At the ICLEI World Congress 2015 this week in Seoul, South Korea, the city went a step further, committing to reaching that goal of 100 percent renewable electricity, transportation, heating and air conditioning by 2030 or 2035.

"Cities around the world must show continued leadership to meet the urgent challenge of climate change, and the most impactful change we can make is a shift toward 100% of our energy being derived from renewable sources," Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said in a statement the day before the vote. "The future of Vancouver’s economy and livability will depend on our ability to confront and adapt to climate change, and moving toward renewable energy is another way that Vancouver is working to become the greenest city in the world."

Great news, Vancouver! You are an inspiration to us all.

Could the rest of Canada follow suit? According to a new report, titled Acting on Climate Change: Solutions from Canadian Scholars, "Canada could reach 100% reliance on low carbon electricity by 2035. This makes it possible, in turn, to adopt a long-term target of at least 80% reduction in emissions by the middle of the century." This would be achieved by using what the report called "Canada's vast renewable energy potential", mainly for solar and wind power, but also by constructing more hydroelectric dams.

Sources: Bloomberg | Climate Central | Climate Progress | Mayor of Vancouver | McGill University (PDF)