Chesapeake Bay Foundation Blog

Balancing the Climate Crisis Against Maryland's Need for Jobs

The following Letter to the Editor was published in the Baltimore Sun on February 29, 2008

It was disappointing to see The Sun encourage delay on fighting global climate change ("Striking a balance," editorial, Feb. 26).

One thing we've learned from Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts is that if we don't set specific, incremental goals, no one is held accountable and little progress is achieved.

The Chesapeake Bay region is at severe risk from pollution and climate change, and the time for action was yesterday. Today we are playing catch-up, and tomorrow will be too late.

The federal government has failed to produce meaningful climate change legislation, and just last week, Rep. Chris Van Hollen told a meeting of concerned citizens in Annapolis that the best way to hold federal feet to the fire was for the states to move forward with climate change legislation.

The Global Climate Change Solutions Act is just such a bill.

It is designed to make fundamental, incremental reductions in carbon dioxide levels that will help avert imminent damage to the state and to solidify Maryland's role as a national leader in carbon reduction.

The state's carbon reduction goals are not overly ambitious.

Six states have set goals in the 80 percent to 90 percent reduction range, and 26 states have adopted lesser limitations.

And there are economic upsides. "Green jobs" can provide an economic boost at the same time that pollution is reduced.

There is no doubt that climate change is here, affecting local rivers, streams and the bay.

There is no doubt that rising sea levels and increasingly severe storms threaten coastal populations.

There is no doubt that we need to reduce pollution, now.

We need the road map, specific goals and milestones provided by the Global Climate Change Solutions Act.

William C. Baker
President, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

March 5 - Fight for Clean Water and Clean Energy

Put a big red circle around the date March 5 on your calendar.

The Clean Water Network has declared March 5 as National Clean Water Phone Congress Day. The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to act this year on what could be the most important clean water legislation in 35 years: The Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421).

This bipartisian bill is needed now to ensure that all of the nation's streams, headwater tributaries, wetlands and other waters remain protected from pollution by the federal Clean Water Act. It will reaffirm that the Clean Water Act was intended to protect all of the waters of the United States, from big rivers to small streams, and from the Great Lakes to remote wetlands. 

So limber up those fingers and and call your U.S. Representative between 9am and 6pm EST. Tell him/herto support clean water by getting behind the Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421). For more information about the bill and how to contact your representative, download this message from CWN.

If you live near Annapolis, you'll want to limber up those legs and walk or ride to Lawyer's Mall (across from the State House) to Rally with O'Malley for green jobs and a clean energy future. Join Governor O'Mally, the Alliance for Global Warming Solutions, CBF, and others at 10am on March 5 to thank the Gov. for his support of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008 and to stand with him in asking the General Assembly to pass this bill!

Save the Bay - Cool the Planet

Yes, it was snowing at the climate change rally in Annapolis but thank goodness we still have snow in the winter! From recent reports of melting ice caps and record warmth it may not be that way for long. But the snow did not deter hundreds of activists from rallying to urge Maryland legislators to pass one of the strongest climate change bills in the country: The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) - requiring Maryland to institute programs that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 and 90% by 2050. Incidently, reducing GH gases will not only help cool the planet but it will also assist in reducing nitrogen pollution to the Bay because nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas (it traps 300 times more solar energy than carbon dioxide). So passing the bill is a twofer, a win-win, a double dip.

"I biked to the rally in the snow with five other CBFers," said Donkey Dover. "The crowd was really pumped up even in the cold. Lots of good energy," said Dover.

Here's how you can help: contact your elected leaders in Maryland and tell them you support GWSA and that we can not delay in acting to stop climate change. The longer we wait, the greater the peril.

For more on climate change and the Chesapeake Bay, read our report: http://www.cbf.org/site/DocServer/climatechange.pdf?docID=9423

To find your legislator, visit: http://mdelect.net/

CBF Gets a Chair at Virginia's Climate Change Table

CBF Virginia Executive Director Ann Jennings has been named by Gov. Tim Kaine to serve on the state's Commission on Climate Change. The 32-person advisory panel is charged with preparing a climate change action plan for the state.

Take the Polar Bear Plunge and Fight Global Warming

On December 8, CBF's president, Will Baker, will join hundreds of others across the country and take the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's third annual Polar Bear Plunge into the fridgid waters of Chesapeake Bay. Won't you join him?

CCAN's annual polar bear plunge draws prominent elected officials and journalists and allows us to dramatically communicate the dire threat to our planet’s environment – and to the Chesapeake Bay. We have one planet and it has a fever, and we need clean energy solutions now.

Join Will and other CBFers at this event and fundraiser. It all begins at 11 am on Saturday, Dec. 8th on the beach at CBF's Merrill Center headquarters in Annapolis. CCAN will have heated tents on the beach plus hot chocolate and donuts and even a trio of polar bears who sing rap songs for the Earth. It’s fun for the whole family for a cause that couldn’t be more vital.

Can't get to Annapolis? Check CCAN's Keep Winter Cold website for a plunge near you.

Register online at keepwintercold.org

And, again, keep in mind that this is also a fundraiser for CCAN and their work to fight global warming, such as the campaign to pass the Global Warming Solutions Act here in Maryland. Participants are simply asked to get their friends and family members to give pledges to sponsor their plunge. It’s easy, and CCAN will take care of all the details.

More on Global Warming and the Chesapeake

Regina Sass writes a good overview of the National Wildlife Federation's report about the effects of global warming on the Chesapeake Bay—a topic also addressed on Capitol Hill today during Senate hearings calling for a federal response to global warming. 

Smith Islanders Movie

(via the Sun's Bay & Environment blog)

Climate activist Mike Tidwell's first documentary, We Are All Smith Islanders, will be showing next month at the Montgomery County Public Library in Rockville.

The movie, which Tidwell wrote and directed, uses the receding livelihoods of the watermen on the island to demonstrate the effects of glabal warming. It occasionally makes the rounds, but the press person for Tidwell's organization, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said no screenings are planned in Baltimore or Annapolis for the near future.

All is not lost, though. If you don't feel like driving to Rockville, you can order the film from the CCAN web site.

Climate Change and the Chesapeake

Today, CBF issued "Climate Change and the Chesapeake," [pdf] a report highlighting the challenges facing the watershed and recommending needed actions. The challenges come from rising water temperatures, which harm underwater grasses and deplete dissolved oxygen levels; and higher sea levels, which could drown wetlands and bays, including environmentally critical wetlands.

Fortunately, the fight to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change is not unlike the challenge we face in cleaning up and restoring the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams. And many of the solutions are the same. The agricultural conservation practices necessary to remove the Bay and its tributaries from the nation's "dirty waters" list will also sequester substantial amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, according to a recent Yale study [pdf]. CBF is urging officials to include more farm assistance money for the Bay region in the federal Farm Bill being reauthorized this year and has just been successful in getting the historic Resource Enhancement and Protection Act authorized in Pennsylvania.

"Agriculture clearly is not the only option," says CBF Senior Scientist Beth McGee. "We need to do other things, but the advantage of agriculture is we can do it now."

For more information, we have also added new climate change information to the "Watershed Issues" section of our website.

Virginia gets moving on alternative-energy projects

via PilotOnline.com

Virginia state government will invest $1.5 million in the alternative-energy projects of a newly formed group of university scientists, called the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium. Three of the projects focus on wind energy; the fourth focuses on algae.

Photo Creative Challenge: Climate Changes

Webshots Blog has announced the winners of its Creative Challenge: Climate Changes. But the Challenge isn't over. All month long they will be collecting more photos for the editors' collection. Let's show them what's happening in the Bay. I'll start with this shot of Holland Island. Add your photos to our comments section (link to your Flickr, Picasa, Shurtterfly or other photo-sharing site), and submit them to Webshots by adding a link to them in their Challenge comment section.

Soot Contributes to Rising Sea Levels

"Black carbon in snow causes about three times the temperature change as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." So says climate physicist Charlie Zender in a new article in Scientific American. Thanks to the Baltimore Sun's Bay Environment blog for bringing this to our attention.

The Tides They Are a Risin'

More than half of Virginia's wetlands could be underwater by the end of the century, according to estimates released by Wetlands Watch, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and conserving Virginia wetlands. For details on their work, check the Wetlands Watch Web site.

Rising tides aren't, of course, limited to the Virginia coastline. At CBF's bi-annual all-staff meeting on Wednesday, several staff members shared their experiences growing up on Smith and Tangier Islands, following family traditions as watermen, and watching a way of life they love struggle for survival. Among their concerns was the ever-encroaching Bay, which threatens the very existance of their homes. Their stories brought the reality of climate change and rising sea levels into painfully sharp focus: ballfields played on as children now submerged under ten feet of marsh, main roads regularly flooded, neighborhoods of 20 and 30 homes now underwater.

Have you experienced the creeping tides? If so, share your story here.