Climate Change

Brian Fagan, professor emeritus of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, will give a talk on environmental reform at 7 tonight at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum as part of the museum’s Waterman Lecture Series. Fagan wrote the book “The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.” His lecture is titled “The Great Warming: Land, Oceans and the Story of the Silent Elephant in the Room.” The talk will examine the current policies of the California Water Resources Department and environmental reform.

Drought years, cutting down trees, emitting more carbon dioxide, and a warming planet are viciously entangled in equatorial Asia, according to an international study that includes a UCI scientist. The study, which analyzes fire and climate observations of places like Borneo, Sumatra and New Guinea from satellites, shows that during drought years, far more acres of forest are cleared by fire. This, in turn, releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which climate scientists point to as the major culprit in climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently denied California’s request to use its own law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to threaten a lawsuit against the federal government. President Bush defended the EPA decision, arguing that his administration was pursuing a “more effective” national effort and that the energy bill he recently signed lessens the need for states to take action individually.

Newport Beach city workers kept busy Thursday morning, pumping out stormwater that had accumulated on the Balboa Peninsula. Along Newport Boulevard between 21st and 26th streets, one lane was closed down for about an hour as crews diverted the water from the street into the harbor, but not before a group of neighbors dropped by to try their hand at skimboarding the nearly 1-foot-deep puddles. No property damage was reported on the peninsula or on Balboa Island, said Mike Pisani, Newport's deputy municipal operations director.

California on its own as an independent nation would have the seventh largest economy in the world. All the more reason, Prince Andrew, duke of York said, to strengthen economic ties between the two markets, especially those between the U.K. and Orange County. “The GDP of Orange County is greater than that of either Portugal or Finland,” he said. “[The U.K. and Orange County are] natural partners.” Prince Andrew addressed a luncheon of about 730 local executives, hosted by the British American Business Council of Orange County at the Orange County Hilton.

NEWPORT BEACH - As people stroll Balboa Island's picturesque waterfront, some wonder how much one of those cozy cottages cost. City officials think about another price tag: how much it will take to defend those homes against rising sea levels. City engineers revealed last month that it could cost about $60 million to replace Balboa Island's aging seawalls, or residents could risk more high tides washing into their streets and homes. The low-lying island, which is 4 to 8 feet above sea level, is only a small portion of coastal communities' looming problems from climate change.

The residence of Valarie and David Whiting was the setting to launch “Sea Change,” the inaugural Orange County event benefiting Oceana, the largest international organization dedicated to protecting the planet’s ocean environment. The evening at the Whiting’s residence attracted the local crowd as well as two Hollywood heavyweights, actor Jeff Goldblum and producer Keith Addis , who also serves as vice chair of the Oceana organization. Addis addressed the gathering, explaining the work of the group in California and around the world.

Climate change is under way in a harmful and dramatic way. Did you know sports can be part of the solution? Melting ice caps, rising oceans, hurricanes and tornadoes, the science and evidence is indisputable. As fossil fuel, water and other resources diminish, major change in our energy grid and wasteful practices is necessary. We don't want to be the first generation in American history to hand a degraded quality of life down to our children. We need to act now before the problem is unsolvable.

Some migrant thoughts while surfing last week beyond health care and presidential pitches for the under-age vote on what is left of our print media: When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce makes news, it is unfailingly cheerful. But some of that cheer is being washed away in the wake of the chamber’s strong opposition to proposed climate change legislation. The latest of its members to withdraw from the national chamber is Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation, whose top executive could no longer be a party to the “obstructionist tactics” of what he called the chamber’s “extremist position on climate change.

I’ve learned a lot over the last few months. I’ll bet you have as well. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve learned:  I learned that just when I was finally ready to buy a Chia Pet, they stopped advertising them.  I’ve learned that if you favor continuing the age-old definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, then you’re a homophobe.  I’ve learned that if you don’t have management or executive experience of any kind, or never served in the military, or started a company, or if you haven’t held a job in the private sector, or gotten promoted on your merit or performance, or met a payroll, or hired or fired, or signed a check on its face, then you’re now considered qualified to be president of the United States, commander in chief of our armed forces and the leader of the free world.