Author: Paul Deaton

Iowa and Climate Change

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 16, 2013

What will climate change mean for Iowans? That climate change exists and is happening now is accepted by any Iowan who employs a rational thought process and considers scientific evidence. As the crazy talk from Ames last weekend indicated, not all Iowans are included in such a group.

That climate change is happening is also acknowledged by our government. In 2007, Iowa Code established the Climate Change Advisory Council, which produced a panel of reports about climate change and on how the state could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The council was disbanded on July 1, 2011, shortly after the election that brought Terry Branstad back into Terrace Hill.

For now, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) maintains a web page that lists climate changes Iowa is already experiencing, and it is worth noting what our government says about the effects of climate change happening now in Iowa. They include:

More Precipitation

Increased frequency of precipitation extremes that lead to flooding.
Increase of eight percent more precipitation from 1873 to 2008.
A larger increase in precipitation in eastern Iowa than in western Iowa.

Higher Temperatures

Long-term winter temperatures have increased six times more than summer temperatures.
Nighttime temperatures have increased more than daytime temperatures since 1970.
Iowa’s humidity has risen substantially, especially in summer, which now has 13 percent more atmospheric moisture than 35 years ago as indicated by a 3 – 5 degree F rise in dew-point temperature. This fuels convective thunderstorms that provide more summer precipitation.

Agricultural Challenges

Climate extremes, not averages, have the greater impact on crop and livestock productivity.
Increased soil erosion and water runoff.
Increased challenges associated with manure applications.
Favorable conditions for survival and spread of many unwanted pests and pathogens.

Habitat Changes

Plants are leafing out and flowering sooner.
Birds are arriving earlier in the spring.
Particular animals are now being sighted farther north than in the past.

Public Health Effects

Increases in heart and lung programs from increasing air pollutants of ozone and fine particles enhanced by higher temperatures.
Increases in infectious diseases transmitted by insects that require a warmer, wetter climate.
An increase prevalence of asthma and allergies.

Whether the DNR will continue to maintain this web site is an open question. The influence of agribusiness over Iowa’s government is no secret. Emblematic was the public clash between Iowa board of regents chair Bruce Rastetter, a Branstad campaign contributor and agribusiness leader, and Jerry Schnoor, a University of Iowa professor and former chair of the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council. It is easy to predict that there will be pressure from agribusiness interests to minimize the importance of climate change. As Blog for Iowa reported, the Farm Bureau idea “they think it’s (climate change) always been happening and therefore is unlikely to have much to do with whatever us humans get up to down at ground level,” is ridiculous.

What Iowans can expect is increased politicization of the science of climate change, especially as President Obama’s plan for climate action is implemented.

There is overwhelming evidence that climate change is anthropogenic. Scientists don’t know where the tipping point lies, but the effects of climate change on humans are getting worse, and we can do something about it without changing our way of life or hurting our economy. We should do something about it before it’s too late.

~ This is part of a series of summer posts on climate change written for Blog for Iowa.

Tags climate change, environment, The Climate Reality Project

Kitchen Garden Work Life

Suddenly it’s Busy

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 16, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— Part of yesterday was clearing the dead and dying squash plants from the garden and planting turnips and transplanting butternut squash seedlings. It is dicey as to whether the squash will produce because of the timing of first frost compared to the 110 day growing cycle. Too, the abundance of squash beetles have nowhere to go without the zucchini and yellow squash plants, so even though they had not found the seedlings this morning, one suspects they will visit and if they like it, attempt to stay.

In that plot, the Brussels sprouts are thriving, as are the three kinds of peppers, Swiss chard and collards. This is the most bountiful year of gardening we’ve had.

In the cool downstairs await six bins of tomatoes and two of broccoli for processing. This is part of a work for food arrangement with a local organic grower. Combine it with the approaching and massive apple harvest and there will be plenty of work to do.

Yesterday I planted three trays of seedlings: lettuce, kale, broccoli, kohlrabi and squash. There is plenty of time left during the growing season for these crops to mature, and I am particularly hopeful about new cucumbers for pickling.

As summer races toward Labor Day and October frost, there is much to be done in the garden and in life. We have to eat to live, and because of this summer of local food, there will be no shortage there. It’s enough to sustain a life on the Iowa prairie, at least for a while.

Tags apples, Kitchen Garden, local food, worklife

Environment

Doubt and Climate Change

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 15, 2013

Public discussions about climate change are closely connected with sales.

Anyone who has taken professional sales training knows creating doubt about a competitor is a key tool used to gain favorable consideration from prospective clients. If there is a legitimate way to point out flaws in a competitor’s product and create a value proposition for a customer, a sale can be made.

A cottage industry has grown up around creating doubt about the reality of climate change, with money flowing from the hydrocarbon business community to fund politicized scientific thought. Unfortunately, it has proven to be effective as was noted in Tuesday’s post.

Most professionals know that in sales, the truth will out and the consequences for future sales depend on a faithful representation of the value proposition. During my recent time with former vice president Al Gore, he displayed an acute awareness of the need to use language in a way to convey truth and not hyperbole. If a salesperson makes false statements about competitors to make sales, or misrepresents the value of his own product during the sales process, the prospective customer will eventually discover the deceit and reject the purchase, and future sales.

The hydrocarbon industry has been very effective in creating doubt about the science of climate change, putting the best face on a dirty source of energy. Most T.V. viewers are familiar with the American Petroleum Institute’s Energy Tomorrow campaign featuring former beauty queen, soap opera star and spokesmodel Brooke Alexander. The value proposition has varied over the years but recently has been safe extraction of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, jobs, energy security and tax revenues to build infrastructure and fund public employees like teachers, fire fighters and law enforcement officers. It all sounds pretty good until we consider the fact that burning fossil fuels adds tens of millions of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere like it was an open sewer every day. This directly contributes to global warming and a changing climate, putting infrastructure, jobs and energy security at risk. Ms. Alexander doesn’t mention that in the ads.

One business group that has no doubt about the climate crisis is the re-insurance industry, companies who insure catastrophic loss. Check out why Munich Re and Swiss Re support reduction of CO2 emissions in the New York Times article, “For Insurers, No Doubt on Climate Change.”

To learn how the hydrocarbon industry borrowed from the tobacco industry’s 1960s sales campaigns to create doubt about the fact that tobacco use causes cancer, to create doubt about climate change, view the five-minute, 12 second video below. While those of us fighting for climate action believe the truth will out, we also hope it will be told and understood before it’s too late.

~ This is part of a series of summer posts on climate change written for Blog for Iowa.

Tags climate change, environment, The Climate Reality Project

Writing

Eleven More Days

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 15, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— There are eleven more posting days in my work for Blog for Iowa, after which I’ll fade into the background from that very public blogging. I have been covering for a colleague who is taking a summer break and if the opportunity is around next summer, I might do it again.

After re-starting pauldeaton.com last March, I didn’t know where it would go. The 196 posts thus far have been focused on topics related to the blog’s title, “On Our Own: Sustainability in a Turbulent World:” Farming, gardening, cooking, eating, work life, home life, local event coverage and discussions of the two biggest threats humanity faces: climate change and nuclear proliferation. There is more to say on these topics.

Today, there are 281 followers of On Our Own, which is posted on my home page. Of those, WordPress is counting my 233 twitter followers who see a link to my articles after they post. I don’t see readers who find me through WordPress’s reader, except if they like my posts or begin to follow me. I appreciate every person who finds their way to pauldeaton.com.

After Labor Day, the posting is expected to settle in around homelife and worklife, which have been the most popular topics. I’ll revisit this year’s work on the CSA and in my garden, and who knows what else? Here’s hoping followers and readers stay tuned.

Tags worklife, Writing

Environment

A Case for Climate Action

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 14, 2013

Four former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, William D. Ruckelshaus, from its founding in 1970 until 1973, and again from 1983 until 1985; Lee M. Thomas, from 1985 until 1989; William K. Reilly, from 1989 until 1993; and Christine Todd Whitman, from 2001 until 2003, have called for the United States to move now on substantive steps to curb climate change, at home and internationally. They are all Republicans.

They wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times, which can be read here. The crux of the letter pertinent to our series of posts on climate change is the following:

“There is no longer any credible scientific debate about the basic facts: our world continues to warm, with the last decade the hottest in modern records, and the deep ocean warming faster than the earth’s atmosphere. Sea level is rising. Arctic Sea ice is melting years faster than projected.

The costs of inaction are undeniable. The lines of scientific evidence grow only stronger and more numerous. And the window of time remaining to act is growing smaller: delay could mean that warming becomes ‘locked in.'”

On June 25, 2013, President Obama spoke about climate change at Georgetown University. He said, “as a President, as a father, and as an American, I’m here to say we need to act.” The president matched his words with a plan for climate action.

On Aug. 11, 2013, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote, “unfortunately, too many elected officials in Washington still talk about climate change as if it doesn’t exist. They falsely claim scientists are still debating whether carbon pollution is warming the planet. It’s time for us all— whether we’re leaders in Washington, members of the media, scientists, academics, environmentalists or utility industry executives— to stop acting like those who deny this crisis exists have a valid point of view. They don’t.”

People like Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma have begun to line up to fight against President Obama’s agenda on climate change, complaining that the president’s staff created a list of political talking points to support his plan. Lucky for us, Inhofe is using as his moral authority a survey of weathercasters. What do weathercasters, people who read weathercasts on the radio or television, know about the science of climate change? Inhofe obfuscated the difference between weathercasters in the survey and meteorologists, not to mention climate scientists, to make his point. This seems typical of climate change deniers.

From my experience of advocating for the New Start Treaty in the U.S. Senate during 2010, something is beginning to happen regarding climate action in Washington. Politicians, Republican and Democratic, don’t make statements like these unless there is.

While I was in Chicago on Aug. 1, the Climate Reality Project announced a partnership with Organizing for Action to support the president’s climate action plan. Inhofe was right about one thing, the forces for good are lining up to get something done about climate change.

“Something is happening but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mister Jones?” Well maybe you should, as all the signs are present.

~ This is part of a series of summer posts on climate change written for Blog for Iowa.

Tags environment, The Climate Reality Project

Environment

Global Warming is not a Liberal Hoax

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 13, 2013

Global warming is settled science, but one wouldn’t know if from conversations heard in Iowa. Blog for Iowa reported on Congressman Dave Loebsack, who wrote, “as Iowans, the threat of flooding never seems far away, and it’s only getting worse… flooding is costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year for preparation and recovery. The prediction and prevention tools from a National Flood Center would help prevent damage and allow our communities to better allocate resources such as sand bags, machinery, volunteers, and temporary flood walls. Every year flooding costs taxpayers, and the new technologies and methods already being put to use in Iowa could save our country untold millions.”

Loebsack was giving Iowans half a loaf. He did not mention the cause of the worsening weather events, saying Iowans should adapt to a climate that produces more frequent and stronger flooding, without mentioning the fact that mitigating the causes of global warming, which strengthens extreme weather events like Iowa’s recent flooding, is equally important.

This is not surprising for a politician. Inculcated in our culture is the erroneous idea that global warming is a liberal hoax, and to get elected in Iowa’s second congressional district, the liberal moniker is more liability than asset. Global warming is not a hoax. The idea that it is has been the direct result of a conscious effort on the part of American businesses with an interest in perpetuating our carbon culture for short term profits.

Noam Chomsky, linguist and political critic, said, “the chamber of commerce… the American Petroleum industry and other business lobbies have publicly proclaimed, in fact with enthusiasm, that they are carrying out a campaign to try to convince the population that global warming is a liberal hoax… and it’s succeeded unfortunately. The latest polls I have seen show that maybe a third of the population believes in anthropogenic global warming.”

It is easy to say Iowa should do something to reduce the cost of increasing and more devastating floods in the state and a National Flood Center, as Loebsack proposes, may help. What would help more is doing something about the causes of these floods, and that falls to what is a politically unmentionable, reducing CO2 emissions drastically and immediately through the assignment of a price on carbon.

Below is a link to the Noam Chomsky YouTube video where he discusses global warming. The part from the beginning up to the 5:43 mark is most relevant.

~ This is part of a series of summer posts on climate change written for Blog for Iowa.

Tags climate change, The Climate Reality Project

Living in Society

Crazy Talk from Ames

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 13, 2013

Conservatives met in Ames this weekend at the Family Leader Summit 2013, making the case for detractors of Iowa’s first in the nation caucuses with their extreme views and media circus.

While views expressed at the event are in the minority among Iowans, who gave Barack Obama their seven electoral votes in 2012, Iowa conservatives garner broad bandwidth in the news media. President Obama and the congress are on vacation, so it was a slow news day.

Family Leader spokesperson Bob Vander Plaats indicated a number of news media outlets were credentialed. Iowa City’s Adam B. Sullivan posted,
C-SPAN has partial coverage archived, including speeches by Rick Santorum and Donald Trump, the latter appearing to be the media darling of the event.

…although some disagreed, With his usual style, Trump named the impossible dream for Republicans,

The event hit some of the current conservative memes, including the tug of war over who is the most conservative freak to occupy airspace about the 2016 Republican presidential nomination,
Speakers touched on immigration,
… abortion,
… abolishing the IRS,
… a call to break the law, … and more votes to repeal Obamacare, There were also bits of advice rendered,
…and, There was analysis, … and,

Seems like a bunch of crazy talk to me, but what would a progressive blogger know? Oh, that’s right, I’ve read Sun Tzu, “pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.” There’s more on twitter at the hashtag #FLS2013 if readers can stomach it.

~ Written for Blog for Iowa

Tags politics

Environment

Countdown to Labor Day

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 13, 2013

Trish Nelson has been enjoying her break from Blog for Iowa and reported that in addition to following coverage of the Kent Sorenson – Michelle Bachmann – Ron Paul affair, she has been checking out the technology of Iowa,

looking for and finding Elvis,

and watching sunsets.

We miss Trish, and hope she enjoys some rest during her break from Blog for Iowa. Expect to see her back on Sept. 2

That leaves me with sixteen posting days to fulfill my commitment to post about the challenges of temporary workers in Iowa; implications of immigration reform; Iowa’s role in mitigating and adapting to climate change; and occasional posts on energy policy, local food, and peace and justice activities in the state. I have already touched each of those points and want to focus more on the climate crisis.

Since I began posting on July 15, I have written and posted here about climate change exactly five times. Check them out here, here, here, here, and here.

I affiliate with the Climate Reality Project, and our team put together a starting point for the conversation I hope to have about the science of climate change before I fade into the background again on Sept. 1. To understand that climate change is real, and caused by us, it is important to understand the science. This four minute, 34 second video with Bill Nye the Science Guy helps set a scientific framework for the discussion. More follows, but that will be another post.

~ Written for Blog for Iowa

Tags climate change, environment, The Climate Reality Project

Kitchen Garden

Vegetarian Onion Soup

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 12, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— Sunday was cooking day after finishing my work at the newspaper and the farm: the beginning of a long season of using and preserving the summer bounty. It began with figuring out what was in the refrigerator.

Three heads of cabbage are holding up reasonably well, but there is leftover coleslaw from last week. The idea is to make sauerkraut, feeling bullish on fermentation after the success of my pickle experiment. For now, I peeled the old skin from the outer layer and neatly arranged them on a shelf.

I boiled potatoes to use in breakfasts and a potato salad. The potato salad included potatoes (skins on), two hard cooked eggs, diced dill pickles, diced red onion, and a dressing made from salad dressing, yolks of the cooked eggs, yellow mustard and salt. It will keep for a few days if it is not eaten first.

Juicing half a bushel of apples made a sweet, but almost clear liquid. I need to add juice to the mother of vinegar in the pantry, but decided to wait until an amber colored juice came from the apples in my back yard. I bottled half a gallon of apple juice for breakfast and casual drinking, then drank some.

While gardening, I found a stray turnip and harvested it for the greens. I made soup stock with turnip greens, carrot, celery, onion and bay leaf. I used some of the stock to make rice, some to make onion soup and the rest waits in the refrigerator for the next project.

Onion soup is a mystery solved. I piled vast quantities of sliced onions in the Dutch oven with a layer of olive oil on the bottom. A sprinkling of salt and then a low and slow cooking until they began to turn brown. Just covering them with the turnip soup stock, I simmered until done. Soup was served with grated Parmesan cheese. The soup was as good as any French onion soup to be had at a restaurant. So sweet and flavorful with the simplest of ingredients.

The tomatoes are starting to pile up, there are potatoes aplenty, apples and sweet corn is due any week from the CSA. This year, I’m ready for all of it.

Tags apples, cooking

Kitchen Garden

Zucchini Juice

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date August 11, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— In a quest to use the bountiful zucchini, I found a juice recipe. Zucchini juice? Before you click on the next page in your reader, hear me out. The apple harvest is beginning to come in, and they are also basic part of juicing recipes. Organic carrots were on sale at the mega market, as they often are, and they are another essential part of juicing. Put the three together, run them through a juicer, and the result is a sweet juice that immediately creates a boost of energy. The zucchini flavor is masked by the sweetness of the carrots and apples. Mmmmm.

I know what some readers are going to say, that vegetables should be eaten in the form nature presents them, and not highly processed. They have a point. The rationale is that if the zucchini and carrot are fed through the juicer first, the fiber can be used as a cooking ingredient, especially in soup. Too, there is an abundance of apples and zucchini, and a glass of juice in the morning gets the digestive tract moving, if you know what I mean.

Undecided whether this is the next new thing, or a pit of hopeless and despairing zucchini abundance, all there is to do is recommend readers try it and decide for yourselves. I’ll be having a few more glasses before the season is over.

Tags apples, carrots, cooking, local food