U.S. Rep. Allan Mollohan (D-WV) is first to admit he’s got all the reason in the world to resist climate legislation. 

Hailing from the heart of coal country, he knows that energy policy can have serious consequences for mining towns.  Yet Mollohan was a key player in establishing the America’s Climate Choices study.  He is a member of the subcommittee that funds the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association, which sponsored the study.  In 2007, when the most recent assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made clear a link between human activities and global warming, he said, many people thought we simply needed to stop driving SUVs and start driving Priuses.  (“By the way,” he added, “I own one of each.  Straddling like a good politician should.”)  But Mollohan recognized that such a simple strategy would leave crucial questions unanswered.  For instance, he said, what does sea level change mean for restoration of Louisiana wetlands?  How can we keep Californians supplied with fresh drinking water when the Sierra Nevada’s snowpack is dwindling? 

Mollohan cited an old line from Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes who, when asked why his team ran the ball so often, said that when you pass the ball only three things can happen, and two of them are bad.  When science and policy intersect, Mollohan said, five things can happen, and four of them are bad: The science can be ignored, muzzled, co-opted by industry or misused.  To illustrate the misuse of science, he said, “See George Will, February 2009.”

Nevertheless, Mollohan said, Congress needs the committee’s guidance.  Political problems like whether to raise taxes may be difficult to solve, he said, but they are essentially simple: raise taxes, cut spending, or combine the two.  But climate change involves incredibly complex systems, and Congress needs a set of actionable recommendations to help them address the problem.  He also said that citizen involvement is crucial.

Those sentiments were echoed by U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), who also made the intriguing claim that the term “climate change” was insufficient to convey the situation’s urgency to the public.  When pressed, though, Gordon declined to offer an alternative term.  He urged the committee and other scientists to move quickly to take advantage of a president and members of Congress who have shown an openness toward science. 

When asked by Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press whether he could offer a target we should aim for on parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Gordon said he didn’t know the right number. 

Then, after a brief pause, he added, “The number that really matters is 218,” referring to the number of House votes needed to pass climate legislation.

At the outset of this group of posts from Washington D.C., I’d like to direct readers to the Web site of the Summit on America’s Climate Choices, from which they can access general information about the summit and the study it aims to outline, as well as the Committee on America’s Climate Choices and its panels.  The site does a fine job of explaining everything, so I won’t try to reinvent that wheel.

I should also mention that I hope to soon post video of presentations by Jane Lubchenco, Susan Solomon, Robert Socolow and Stephen Schneider.  Until then, you can watch the summit via webcast.

Day one of the summit was an interesting mix of good humor and sobering talk - two things that will be needed to meet the 2010 deadline for a final report on the study. 

In his opening remarks, Albert Carnesale, who chairs the Committee on America’s Climate Choices, said decision makers are the study’s primary audience.  “This study is not about what the individual should do.  This is about people who implement policies” he said.  Later, though, Carnesale said that his original sense of the audience had shifted since Congress requested the study.  “What I underestimated was the sheer size and breadth of the audience that cares about this,” he said.  “There’s no question that, ultimately, it will be the voter who will determine what America’s response will be.” 

When asked what made this study different from others, and whether it wouldn’t merely delay action further, Carnesale pointed out that this study was specifically requested by Congress, with the question, “What should we do?”  And the world is watching the committee, according to Diana Liverman of the University of Arizona and Oxford University.  “There is enormous interest and hope” in other countries, where the summit is seen as a small-scale version of the upcoming United Nations meeting in Copenhagen, said Liverman, who serves as vice-chair of the Panel on Informing Effective Decisions and Actions Related to Climate Change.

And that hope may be well-founded, according to Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp, who said that the staff of Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) will today release a draft of a comprehensive climate bill that Krupp said will become ”the greatest environmental legislation our country has ever passed.”

“We’re in a race to determine whether we can save ourselves from ourselves,” Krupp said.  “And surely we can.”

Michigan State’s Environmental Science and Policy Program recently held an informal get-together to welcome three newly hired assistant professors, each of whom gave a presentation explaining their backgrounds and research interests.  You can view videos of the presentations below.

Arika Ligmann-Zielinska, jointly appointed by ESPP and Geography, talked about her work with models of risk analysis and decision making about land use:

Louie Rivers, who holds a joint appoinment with Criminal Justice and ESPP, told the audience about his work with environmental risk, and discussed the emerging field of conservation criminology:

Laura Schmitt Olabisi, newly hired by ESPP and Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, discussed why she thinks environmental work is so important, and outlined the many revelations in her academic career, including the need to get communities involved in environmental research:

I sat down recently with Carole Gibbs, an assistant professor jointly appointed by Criminal Justice and Fisheries and Wildlife, to discuss her research, which includes carbon cap-and-trade programs and illegal export of illegal waste. Gibbs also talked generally about the exciting field that’s emerging where criminal justice and environmental policy meet.

This was the first of many informal interviews we hope to conduct with ESPP’s affiliated junior faculty and students. We think it’s a nice way of helping MSU’s environmental researchers get to know each other, and we hope it might lead to an interesting collaboration or two. If you fit one of those categories and would like to sit for an interview to spread the word about your work, please let me know - amcglashen@gmail.com.

-Andy McGlashen

An upcoming conference will draw attention to the effects of climate change and invasive species on Michigan’s birds.  The third annual Ornithological Congress will be held April 3-5 at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey.

ESPP affiliate Kim Hall will address the need for conservation efforts that incorporate climate change.  Birds depend on certain plant and insect species for food, she said, but earlier blooms and hatches brought on by a changing climate could cause a mismatch between the birds’ migration and food availability.  Hall is a Nature Conservancy climate change ecologist and an adjunct researcher at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability.

MSU zoology professor Catherine Lindell will also speak at the conference, which is sponsored by the Michigan Bird Conservation Initiative, a partnership among state and federal agencies, universities and nonprofits.

To learn more or sign up for the conference, call (517) 373-1263 or visit www.mibci.org.

-Andy McGlashen

Great Lakes advocate and author Dave Dempsey will speak on Tuesday, March 24 in room 191 of the Communication Arts and Sciences building at Michigan State.

When it comes to environmental policy in the Great Lakes region, Dempsey has pretty much done it all.  He was environmental adviser to Michigan Gov. James Blanchard, was appointed by President Clinton to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and was executive director of the Michigan Environmental Council in the early 80s.  He has also served as Michigan director for Clean Water Action, taught environmental policy at MSU and written a handful of well-regarded books.

The talk is part of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s Spring Speaker Series.

-Andy McGlashen

Scientists’ understanding of Michigan’s geography has changed considerably in the decades since college textbooks on the subject were last published, so professors have had to use a hodgepodge of readings from various sources to teach their students about the Great Lake State.

Now a new book born at MSU offers students a single, unified source of information on the state’s landforms, natural resources and economy.  Geography and geological sciences professor Randall Schaetzl is the book’s editor-in-chief, and geography chair and fellow ESPP affiliate Richard Groop is its cartography editor.  Its 54 contributors from 15 universities share new understandings of physical forms - like sand dunes - and human geography that were missing from earlier texts.

And there are early indications that the book, called “Michigan Geography and Geology,” is a success. Schaetzl is using it in the Michigan geography course he’s taught for fifteen years, and he told the Lansing State Journal that his students’ recent test scores were the best he’s seen.

“Maybe it’s just a good group of kids,” he told the paper, “but they did exceptionally well, and I think it must have had something to do with the book.”

-Andy McGlashen

“A risk analyst, a police officer and an environmentalist all go to a bar…”

If, like me, you’re anxious to find out the punchline to that joke, please join us on Monday, March 23 from 2:30 to 4:00 for an ESPP community event at the Kellogg Center.

We’ll welcome three faculty members who began appointments with ESPP this school year.  To begin the event, the new hires will give 10-minute presentations on their areas of academic interest.

Arika Ligmann-Zielinska will give a talk entitled: “Complex spatial systems and agent-based modeling in a nutshell.” Laura Schmitt Olabisi will deliver her presentation: “Undisciplined: my academic journey.” And Louie Rivers will, hopefully, finish the promising joke that his presentation’s title began.

After the presentations there will be time to chew the fat with members of the MSU environmental community.  And if earlier events are any indicator, there will also be a chance to chew on cheese and crackers, fruit, vegetables and the like.  There have even been rumors of brownies.

All are welcome to attend; we just ask that you RSVP here.

-Andy McGlashen

Terry Link has been the face of environmental stewardship at Michigan State since September of 2000, when he became director of the newly formed Office of Campus Sustainability.

It’s hard to imagine campus without him, but we’ll have to get used to it; Link is stepping down from his post to become Executive Director of the Greater Lansing Food Bank.

We spoke last week about how the food bank’s reach extends beyond fighting hunger to build a strong and healthy community.  He also discussed the past and future of sustainability at MSU.

For now, Link’s old duties will be split up among a handful of people, and it’s not yet clear who will replace him.  Whoever steps in to shrink the university’s environmental footprint will have to fill some mighty big shoes.

-Andy McGlashen