White House gets geeky on climate problem

[ProSense]

White House gets geeky on climate problem

By John Upton

To see how the world is changing around you, sometimes it helps to lose yourself online.

The White House is plunging into a new geeky approach to climate adaptation. It has consolidated online climate tools into a new hub, climate.data.gov, intended to help Americans understand how weather and sea levels will continue to change in their states and even their neighborhoods.

OK, so it’s not the most awesome online thing to happen since Google mastered search. But The New York Times explains some of the laudable ambition behind the effort:

In theory, … climate.data.gov … would be a powerful tool, allowing local governments or home and business owners to type in an address — as they do on sites like Google Earth — to quickly see how the projected rise in sea levels might increase the chance that their house will be flooded in the coming years. But in practice, until climate science and mapping applications can live up to the site’s ambitions, it will remain very much in its testing phase.

At the beginning, the website will serve chiefly as a clearinghouse for climate science data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the United States Geological Survey, the Defense Department and NASA, according to (White House advisers John) Holdren and (John) Podesta. The first batch of data will focus on coastal flooding and the rise in sea levels.

Average users will not be able to do much yet on their own. Instead, NASA and the NOAA will call on researchers and private companies to create software simulations illustrating the impact of sea level rise.

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UPDATE: Google, Microsoft, and Intel have all committed to help develop the climate.data.gov project. Microsoft will donate close to one terabyte of cloud storage space, as well as sponsor a competition for climate scientists to win a year of free access to cloud computing resources. Google, not to be outdone, will provide one petabyte (for those not caught up on their Greek: that’s one thousand terabytes) of cloud storage for climate change research data, and will help create a map of the Earth’s terrain in high resolution to illustrate the effects of climate change on the landscape. And Intel has planned hackathons that will bring together students in Chesapeake Bay, New Orleans, and San Jose to build apps to measure and track climate change using government data.

http://grist.org/news/white-house-gets-geeky-on-climate-problem/

[Voice for Peace]

1. Great project!!

Geek away Mr. President.

[ProSense]

2. Yes. n/t

[ProSense]

3. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

4. Secretary Kerry Makes Climate Change Top Priority...Some key actions to deliver on that policy

Jake Schmidt’s Blog

Secretary Kerry Makes Climate Change Top Priority in New Policy Directive: Some key actions to deliver on that policy

Secretary Kerry has just issued his first “Policy Directive” as U.S. Secretary of State. This new directive outlines that climate change is a central issue for the State Department and directs an “all hands on deck” approach to this issue. He rightly recognized that this will require strong action in the U.S., while helping spur global action. This is welcome sign that should ensure that all components of the U.S. diplomatic service are mobilized to help drive climate change action. His leadership will be critical on several key pending actions that can help deliver upon these new guidelines.

Working with the entire U.S. Administration Secretary Kerry can help deliver on these guidelines with a couple of key actions.

1. Reject KXL and other tar sands pipelines that will expand greenhouse gas emissions. The guidelines outline that the U.S. should: “Lead by example through strong action at home and abroad.” Keystone XL would cause an expansion of tar sands production and the associated greenhouse gas emissions (as my colleague pointed out). And tar sands expansion is helping Canada blow past its international commitment to address climate change. In its formal submission to the U.N. Canada acknowledged that it will fail to meet its commitment to cut its emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. And tar sands expansion is the single biggest emissions growth in Canada so enabling these emissions would fail both the “act and home and abroad test” in the directive. Secretary Kerry should listen to the 2 million people urging him to reject Keystone XL.

2. Support strong domestic action to deliver on the U.S. Climate Action Plan to meet the target outlined in Copenhagen. Strong implementation of the Climate Action Plan will put the US on track to meet its commitment to cut emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020. Chief among these are the domestic actions that the US takes on power plant carbon pollution, reducing the “super-greenhouse gas” called HFCs, and methane leaks from oil and gas. Aggressive implementation of the Climate Action Plan would be a clear sign that call for “strong action at home” in the directive is on solid ground.

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4. Secure a global agreement in December 2015 and push for an “all hands on deck” approach to climate action. In December 2015 countries are set to agree on the next round of legal commitments to address climate change. We don’t have the luxury of “kicking the can down the road” so all countries must come prepared to make bold and decisive commitments to curb their own carbon pollution and mobilize investments in developing countries. The State Department directive recognizes this moment when it states: “negotiate a new, ambitious international climate agreement applicable to all countries by 2015 to take effect in 2020”. Secretary Kerry and his team will play a critical role in ensuring that the U.S. is prepared to act aggressively in this agreement. Countries have begun to outline some of their visions for this agreement (see Reuters on US proposals, Reuters on Chinese proposals, RTCC on EU’s proposals, and here for all of the submissions).

At the same time, Secretary Kerry clearly recognizes that we need an “all hands on deck” approach (his recent speech referred to it as a “you name it approach”) where countries are using all of the tools and available avenues to address climate change. This principle is already evident in the U.S. effort to support phasing down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol, supporting reducing black carbon reductions from dirty diesel and other sources, eliminating public funding of coal projects, and pushing for major companies to commit to eliminate deforestation from their supply-chain. Secretary Kerry can continue to lead this push, while also ensuring that the entire State Department operation is supporting climate action (not supporting more investments in climate destructive activities).

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http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/jschmidt/secretary_kerry_makes_climate.html