Category: Environment

Earth Week Celebration
Remarks delivered at Old Brick on April 19, 2014
Iowa City, Iowa

If you haven’t seen the buffalo at Yellowstone National Park, you should. One gets a sense of possibilities that existed on the plains as the herds wander and belch their way back and forth inside the park. There is space for them to seem vast, even if they are a fraction of what they once were. The herds will never return to the great plains, but to see the bison at Yellowstone made the trip for me.

If you are on the Internet at all, you have likely heard of the YouTube videos showing buffalo exiting Yellowstone. The assertion is that the giant caldera that makes the park unique is getting ready to erupt in a cataclysmic explosion that portends the end of life as we know it.  Scientists don’t agree. Yes, Yellowstone is a big volcano. Yes, it last erupted over 600,000 years ago. But no, a new eruption isn’t overdue because science doesn’t work like that, despite the activities of bison.

Here’s what does matter. The difference between natural pollution of the atmosphere caused by volcanoes and that caused by humans.

I want to discuss three more things: Mount Tambora, Mount Saint Helens, and nuclear famine.

On April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia produced the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. The blast was so loud, it was heard 1,200 miles away in Sumatra. It is estimated that the eruption produced 38 cubic miles of volcanic debris.

While some 12,000 people were killed directly by the eruption, the larger death toll was from starvation and disease, as fallout from the eruption ruined local agricultural productivity, killing another 50,000 people or more.

What made matters worse was the dispersion of ash throughout the atmosphere. It darkened the sky and created climate anomalies including what we call volcanic winter. 1816 became known as the year without a summer because of weather. Crops and livestock died in much of the Northern Hemisphere, resulting in the worst famine in the 19th century.

While nowhere nearly as bad as Mount Tambora, the volcanic eruption on May 18, 1980 at Mount Saint Helens is fixed in memory for people living at the time. It was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States.

If we compare them, Mount Saint Helens was much smaller than the Mount Tambora eruption. According to the index that measures these things, Mount Tambora was rated 7 while Mount Saint Helens was rated 5. We know about Mount Saint Helens because it is fixed in our memories. We should also remember Mount Tambora as it was more important.

That brings me to nuclear abolition. Recent research has indicated that two billion people may be at risk in a limited, regional nuclear weapons exchange by two of the world’s nuclear states. The reasons are similar to what caused the year without a summer. The firestorm after the exchange would create soot and ash in the atmosphere many times worse than the single year without a summer after Mount Tambora erupted. Simply put, it would be a disaster of unprecedented proportion. One that could happen or be prevented by humans.

The conclusion people should draw is there is no reason for nuclear weapons to exist and they should be abolished.

The next time people on the Internet worrying about the end of civilization as we know it based upon YouTube videos, I recommend you turn off the computer and focus on preventing disasters we can by abolishing nuclear weapons.

Earth Week Presentation at the Independence Public Library

INDEPENDENCE, Ia.– Paul Deaton, a climate leader for The Climate Reality Project, will make a presentation titled, “Earth Week: Climate Reality in Iowa,” on Thursday, April 24 , at 6:30 p.m. at the Independence Public Library as part of the library’s Earth Week activities.

The presentation will address the science of climate change, then focus on recent extreme weather events around the world and in Iowa. It will include discussion of the 2012 drought and last year’s weird hydrology cycle of a very wet and late spring coupled with drought throughout much of the summer, connecting the dots between climate change and the extreme weather. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer period.

About Paul Deaton

Paul Deaton is a native Iowan. He is a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, part of a global initiative with more than 5,000 leaders trained personally by former Vice President Al Gore. Deaton participated in the first Earth Day in 1970, and has been speaking and writing on climate change, nuclear non-proliferation, foreign policy and renewable energy for a number of years. He retired from CRST Logistics, Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he was a director of operations. He has been a board member for a number of non-profit organizations during recent years, and worked on a number of projects as a consultant. He is currently serving a four-year term as a Big Grove Township Trustee. Deaton holds a Masters Degree in American Studies from the University of Iowa Graduate College, and is a former United States Army officer. An empty nester, he lives with his wife Jacque near Solon.

About The Climate Reality Project

The Climate Reality Project, founded and chaired by former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore, is dedicated to unleashing a global cultural movement demanding action on the climate crisis. Despite overwhelming international scientific consensus on climate change, the global community still lacks the resolve to implement meaningful solutions. The Climate Reality Project exists to forge an unwavering bedrock of impassioned support necessary for urgent action. With that foundation, together we will ignite the moral courage in our leaders to solve the climate crisis.

For more information click here.

I filed the following comment today on The U.S. Department of State (DOS) Notice: Presidential Permit Applications: TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P, National Interest Determination, Docket ID: DOS-2014-0003:

As a U.S. citizen I believe it would best serve our national interests, and the interests of commerce to deny the presidential permit to TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. for these reasons:
1. We are a nation in transition with regard to energy, from existing fossil fuel repositories to more renewable sources of energy. The Keystone pipeline would not contribute in any substantial way to this transition, only exploit existing fossil fuel deposits.
2. Producing oil from the Canadian Tar Sands is viable only because of the high cost of oil on global markets. Such costs do not consider the cost to the environment, particularly the costs of extracting and using Tar Sands oil which produces CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions with it. Additional greenhouse gas emissions would have a deleterious effect on the greenhouse effect that sustains life on Earth. Keystone pipeline would hasten emissions by making Tar Sands oil more readily available to global markets.
3. I do not support the use of eminent domain in the United States to secure easements to build the pipeline for this Calgary, Alberta-based company. Foreign companies should have no access to the U.S. eminent domain laws, even if limited U.S. interests are served.
4. The precautionary principle should be employed in developing the Keystone pipeline, since there is a lack of consensus about how it might serve the public. There are clear and dangerous concerns expressed about the harm completion of the pipeline could cause to the public and to the environment. Applying the precautionary principle would result in not building the remainder of Keystone pipeline.