As the seas rise, averting disaster won’t be as simple as organizing an orderly retreat. Read the rest in my new story for The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media.

Let’s say you take your dog to the veterinarian, where you learn that you need to give “Spot” a pill once a day for two weeks. At home, the trusty canine refuses to swallow the pill — it probably tastes bad, after all.

Like many dog owners, you’re likely to stick the pill into something more appealing, such as a wedge from that snack-time hotdog. With the pill safely inside the frank, Spot likely will scarf it down, no questions asked.

Might climate communicators adopt a similar technique? Can they present climate news in a more palatable package that will help people absorb, rather than repel, it?

Learn the answer in my new story for The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media.

Since the 1970s, manufacturers have used retardants to reduce fire risk in consumer products such as upholstered furniture, electronics, and clothing. Commonly used flame retardants called polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) volatilize from those products and escape into the environment, where they may pose health and environmental hazards.

In 2004, the flame-retardant industry began replacing PBDEs with new formulations including Firemaster 550 and Firemaster BZ-54, which contain 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (TBB) and bis(2-ethylhexyl)-tetrabromophthalate (TBPH). But these chemicals could also have environmental risks: Research has suggested that the compounds can build up in fish and damage their DNA.

So Ronald A. Hites of Indiana University, Bloomington, and his colleagues wanted to know if TBB and TBPH had started to accumulate in the environment. The researchers analyzed 507 air samples collected by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, a U.S.-Canada program that monitors air quality in the Great Lakes region. Hites and his team used gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to measure levels of the two chemicals in samples collected between 2008 and 2010. They detected TBB and TBPH in the vast majority of samples from Chicago and Cleveland, where levels of the compounds doubled approximately every 13 months. They also found the compounds in about half of air samples from four rural sites. At those sites, levels doubled every 19 months.

Michele Bachmann calls carbon dioxide “a natural byproduct of nature.” Rick Santorum says climate change is “a beautifully concocted scheme.” Mitt Romney was against global warming before he decided he wasn’t sure of the cause.

In fact, all of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates, save Jon Huntsman, have expressed doubts about the existence and causes of global warming.

But just three years ago, both major party candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, pledged to cut greenhouse emissions dramatically.

What’s changed?

Find out in my new story at The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media.

And don’t miss this spooky-yet-hilarious cartoon from the Perry campaign that suggests that Romney and Obama are “carbon copies” of each other.

The hormone-mimicking chemical bisphenol A is ubiquitous in cash-register receipts in the United States, according to new research. Other paper products, such as envelopes and newspapers, also frequently contain the compound, the study found. As a result, the authors conclude, people are routinely exposed to BPA through their skin, albeit at levels lower than through diet.

In animal studies, researchers have found that BPA can disrupt the reproductive system and increase the risk of certain cancers, but debate continues over whether the levels found in human beings cause health problems. Some manufacturers use a powdery form of the substance to coat cash-register receipts, where it acts as a color developer.

… When [researchers] tested 83 receipts from seven U.S. cities, they detected BPA in all of them – even the ones labeled “BPA-free.”

… The researchers also tested 99 samples of other paper products, such as toilet paper, newspapers, and airplane boarding passes. They found that 80 of the samples contained BPA. Those samples probably were recycled paper contaminated by BPA-coated receipts.

Read the rest of my story in Chemical & Engineering News.

If you’re trying to reduce your household’s contribution to climate change, you probably know about the obvious energy hogs, such as clothes dryers and refrigerators.

But when I was reporting a recent story for Chemical & Engineering News, I learned something surprising: Your laptop and television also contribute large amounts of greenhouse emissions.

[Edgar] Hertwich and his colleague Charlotte Roux modeled the greenhouse gases that come from household electronics and appliances in Norwegian homes in 2008. Using data from life-cycle assessments, sales reports, and other studies, they calculated the greenhouse emissions of the devices, considering manufacture, use, and disposal.

They found that freezers and refrigerators accounted for the most emissions: the equivalent of about 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide per household in 2008. Televisions and computers ranked second and third, contributing about 1,300 and 1,100 pounds of greenhouse emissions, respectively.

Why do TVs and laptops generate so many greenhouse gases? The answer lies in the often-overlooked emissions produced during manufacturing. The researchers found that manufacturing a laptop generated nearly 40 times the emissions produced by using the laptop for a year (at least in Norway). And buying the latest, greatest gadgetry also makes an impact:

Hertwich says that the rapid turnover of electronics increases the importance of manufacturing’s emissions. Norwegian households purchase a washing machine only once every nine years, on average, but buy a computer every two years and a television every 3.5 years.

Read the rest.

In a story for Chemical & Engineering News, I report that little progress has been made in reducing farm runoff, the main cause of a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite decades of conservation efforts, nitrate pollution in the Mississippi River basin hasn’t improved. Between 1980 and 2008, nitrate levels have held steady at some sites in the river and its tributaries, while increasing by more than 70% at another, according to a new study by researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es201221s).

Since the mid-20th century, farmers in the Mississippi River basin have applied nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer to their crops. Some of that fertilizer washes into the Gulf of Mexico, where it feeds algal blooms. As bacteria devour the algae, they suck dissolved oxygen from the water and create a dead zone: an area of low-oxygen water where many organisms cannot survive.

Read the rest.

In the most recent chapter of the book called “I have an awesome life,” I reviewed every episode of “The Daily Show” since 1999 that has dealt with climate change or global warming, 67 episodes in all. In a story for The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, I report that Jon Stewart’s coverage of the issue is hilarious but often misleading:

Although the show deftly highlights the follies of politicians and television news networks, it is prone to inaccuracies of its own. A Yale Forum analysis found that Stewart and the show’s other correspondents have repeatedly — and mistakenly — conflated the ozone hole and climate change. At times, Stewart has appeared uncharacteristically timid in questioning guests about climate science. Meanwhile, the show’s coverage of the University of East Anglia/Climatic Research Unit 2009 e-mail controversy likely reinforced public misunderstanding.

Check it out.

For Chemical & Engineering News, I also reported recently that the soils of northern forests are high in mercury, and that dioxin levels in Beijing dropped 70 percent during the 2008 Summer Olympics, in part because the city temporarily banned two million cars from the road.

Writer and producer Ron Blau interviewed me by Skype about how video producers can do a better job of communicating about climate change on the Web. You can see the interview here.

And finally, I got a promotion! I’m now the interim executive producer for reesenews.org, an experimental digital news site based at the University of North Carolina. The site, which launched in November 2011, is staffed by a fantastic team of students who have already started to win some big awards. For example, this interactive story about NCAA investigations at UNC just won a first-place national Society of Professional Journalists award. If you’re a journalism geek, both reesenews.org and reesefelts.org, our insider blog, are well worth checking out.

Wanted: Climate change-based novels with a strong dose of story, vivid character development, a strong theme, and setting or atmosphere. Climate change focus alone may not be sufficient.

In a new article at The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, I review two recent novels about climate change: “2045: A Story of Our Future,” by Peter Seidel, and “Human Scale,” by Kitty Beer. Both are set in the mid-21st century United States, when climate change has drastically altered the way Americans live. As I report at The Yale Forum, both novels are carefully researched and present plausible visions of our future.

In novelist Peter Seidel’s 2045, we glimpse the future through the eyes of Carl Lauer, a conservative Midwestern businessman who fell into a coma in the year 2010. He awakens 35 years later to a startlingly altered America. A changing climate has led to drought and reduced snowpack in the Southwest. Worsening hurricanes and rising seas have forced many people to leave Florida. Millions of people fleeing from scorched and flooded regions are migrating to the Midwest, where resulting population growth has led to widespread unemployment and rampant crime. Lauer learns that declining production in America’s wheat belt had caused bread prices to rise — until the U.S. seized control of Alberta and Saskatchewan. He is bewildered and horrified by the country’s transformation.
…

In Beer’s version of the future, Boston in 2062 is under water. The changing climate has led to frequent weather extremes, such as droughts followed by devastating floods. Meanwhile, religious extremists, called Zorians, have seized control of the government.

In this world, the great masses — including refugees from southern latitudes — live in hunger and fear while elites retain access to perks such as air conditioners, good food, and bus passes.

Alas, the books suffer from flaws in plot and character development that ultimately detract from the reader’s experience.

[U]nfortunately, after Lauer’s miraculous awakening, the plot falters. The first half of the book is devoted to his journeys to Chicago, La Crosse, Wis., and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Aside from traveling on a futuristic high-speed train system and talking with long-lost friends and family members, Lauer doesn’t really do anything. When he is kidnapped in California — surely a moment for drama — the book zips through the episode in just nine paragraphs.

So how can aspiring novelists do a better job of engaging their readers on climate change? For an answer, read the rest of my story.

The fuel generators, called anaerobic digesters, rely on microbes that break down animal or human waste inside airtight, underground tanks that are typically between 6 and 10 m3 in size. They produce biogas, which is composed largely of methane. The biogas travels through pipes into the home, where people burn it for cooking, lighting, and heating.

…

[The researchers] found that compared with traditional fuels, anaerobic digesters would produce as much as 54% less warming over 20 years. The researchers detected methane leaks in less than 10% of digesters, but they calculated that even leaky systems would cut warming compared to traditional fuels, by 35 to 42% during the same period.

I didn’t have room to include these details in the story, but to set up your own biogas generator, you’ll need:
1) Waste from about two large animals (that amount will provide enough fuel to cook for a family)
2) Water
3) Warm temperatures. The microbes inside an anaerobic generator produce more methane when it’s hot. But some Alaskan scientists have found some cold-loving microbes that could make biogas production efficient even in chilly climates.

Read the rest.