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NJ lurches from drought to floods, but Christie Rollbacks Weaken DEP Management

heron doesn’t have a lot of water to wade in. Alexauken Creek, West Amwell (July 11, 2010). Stream flow is even lower today.

[Update: 8/23/10 – as I said, “NJ lurches from drought to floods” : today’s news:

• Bergen County flood waters  starting to ease
• North Jersey cloudbursts bring spot flooding, outages

“The ground is so hard now that when it rains it’s like pouring water on concrete, it’s running off everywhere”, Ziff said. ]

[Update: 8/14/10 – perfect example of chaos and DEP abdication – AP reports that Bergen County has declared mandatory restrictions at the request of private water company via Order of County Executive.: “Bergen County Imposes mandatory water restrictions“ –

But don’t worry, DEP said they’ll get their act together and have a draft plan by NEXT MAY!  – end updates ].

Last week, DEP finally issued a drought watch, and today said a warning or drought emergency would be issued in the next ten days unless there was significant rainfall (watch today’s NJN News Report by Ed Rodgers) (and click on “Water Supply Low“ (Aug. 11, 2010) – I can’t believe that as we are entering a drought, DEP says they will update the 14 year old Water Supply Master Plan, by NEXT MAY!] .

Sources in DEP advised me that private water companies are preparing their own drought emergency declarations and management plans, with little coordination with or deference to DEP regulators.

Worse, sources indicate that anticipated drought restrictions are causing chaos on the ground right now.

Quietly behind the scenes, municipalities and private water companies are scrambling to exploit their DEP water allocations and fill their tanks ahead of any restrictions, damn the consequences for the environment, the economy, or other towns and cities .

Documenting this first come/first serve “I’ve got mine Jack” chaos and lack of DEP management control of the situation, yesterday, the Bergen Record reported:

The DEP’s drought watch announcement last week “caused an immediate surge” in demand, said Colleen DeStefano, deputy executive director of the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, which runs the Wanaque and Monksville reservoirs that provide water to both municipalities and utilities. “Everyone wanted to top off their reservoirs.”

The commission supplies United Water, the Passaic Valley Water Commission and individual cities and towns from Wayne to Newark.

DeStefano said many of the commission’s municipal and utility clients have been allowed to overdraft — that is, they’re taking more water than they are normally allocated, because of the increased demand on their supplies.

The Wanaque Reservoir, which has a capacity of 29 billion gallons, is down to 17.6 billion, or 59.6 percent of capacity, compared with 93.3 percent last year at this time. “We’re concerned,” DeStefano said.

Normally, the smaller Monksville reservoir is not tapped until late in October, but the commission may have to do it sooner this year.

The “Oradell Reservoir ‘s one of four operated by United Water, which serves about 800,000 customers in Bergen and Hudson counties” is at 47 percent of capacity, said United Water spokeswoman Sonja Clark. Combined, she said, the four are at 51 percent of capacity, compared to above 90 percent last summer.

The Oradell has taken on a greenish tinge because the lower water levels have allowed seeds to germinate and grow. In addition, the hot weather has increased water temperatures, encouraging more algae to bloom.

The Wanaque reservoir system also has an emergency backup source of water pumps along the Passaic and Ramapo rivers.

Normally, the DEP does not allow the commission to pump from the rivers until September, because dwindling river flows affect pollution levels and can harm fish and wildlife. The commission has petitioned the DEP to start pumping now, but so far the state has not granted permission, DeStefano said.

Despite these serious – and worsening – problems that demand statewide coordination and control, DEP’s already weak hand is being weakened further.

The resources and capacity of DEP programs to manage the causes and effects of drought have been eroding over many years and – remarkably – are now being rolled back by the Christie Administration. Follow this – it’s not  a pretty picture:

DEP last updated the NJ Statewide Water Supply Master Plan in 1996. That Plan establishes the scientific, data, and policy framework for managing state water supplies. The law mandates that the Plan be updated every 5 years, so an update was due in 2001, nine yeas ago.

Since the last Plan Update in 1996, there have been major changes on the ground that effect water supply management:

• water demand has soared due to population increase, more McMansion residential lawn watering, swimming pools, and golf course and agricultural irrigation;
• water supply has been reduced due to landscape changes, higher temperatures, less rainfall, less groundwater recharge, and higher pollution levels that eliminate summer river flows in the Passaic, Pompton, Hackensack, and Raritan rivers for water supply purposes;
• An aging infrastructure has gotten older and leakier – a multi-billion dollar infrastructure deficit has gone unfunded;
• over 300,000 acres of forests, wetlands, and farmlands have been lost to development, which significantly modifies the hydrological cycle;
• The ecological effects of diminished stream/river flows; loss of wetlands, riparian buffers, and vernal pools; and declining groundwater levels have become pronounced;
• The Highlands Master Plan process documented significant deficits in many watersheds;
• new science on water quality and unregulated pollutants has documented increasing public health and ecological risks; and
• global warming is increasing temperatures and changing rainfall, snowfall, and spring snowmelt patterns, thus altering fundamental hydrology and creating new demand and stressors.

Obviously, all these changes demand even stronger management by DEP, yet, despite these growing challenges, the Christie Administration started off with major missteps:

• Executive Order #2 imposed a moratorium on 12 DEP regulations, including 2 rules to update water supply regulations;
• The Christie Transition Reports attacked the Highlands Council/RMP and DEP regulations and DEP’s role in intervening in the private sector, thus curbing the effective power of DEP regulators and empowering private water companies;
• The Red Tape Review Process recommended that 15 other DEP regulations be reviewed for rollback, including rules related to water resource management. The 180 day Red Tape review of DEP rules is ongoing;
• The Water Supply Master Plan process seems to have fallen into a black hole;
• DEP Commissioner Martin blasted DEP “culture”,  issued a Reorganization, and announced a Transformation Plan. These have led to poor morale, bureaucratic chaos, and confusion. DEP is adrift; and
• Lack of Leadership – Commissioner Martin has yet to meet with the Water Supply Advisory Council, which has been perceived as a failure to make water supply issues a priority.

We leave now with a list of just a few of the benefits and controversial issues that must be addressed in the Water Supply Master Plan Update:

1. Revisions of Safe Yields and Minimum Passing Flows in light of new hydrological and climate data, including revisions to the NJ Geological Survey Technical Memorandum 09-3  “The Hydrological Integrity Assessment Process in New Jersey”

2. Revisions of Safe Yields and Minimum Passing Flows to address Ecological Flow Goals protections and cumulative impact methodology, including new restrictions on hydro-modification of wetlands systems and alteration of stream base flow, as illustrated by the Berlin Boro well case – NJ Geological Survey GSR 29 “GUIDELINES  FOR PREPARING HYDROGEOLOGIC REPORTS FOR WATER-ALLOCATION PERMIT APPLICATIONS”;

3. Establishing Cumulative impact thresholds and ecological standards for allowable withdrawals in groundwater dependent areas, in consideration of currently unregulated withdrawals (see this historical classic);

4. Developing a management program to better restrict and impose allocation requirements on farmers.

Under current rules, a DEP issued water alllocation permit is NOT required for agricultural uses, regardless of volume or impact. An Agricultural Water Usage Certification or Agricultural Water Use Registration must be obtained from the County agricultural agent if a person has the capability to withdraw ground and/or surface water in excess of 100,000 gallons per day for agricultural, aquacultural or horticultural purposes.

5. Financing necessary infrastructure upgrades and maintenence;

6. Strengthening the regulatory framework for emerging water quality and pollution issues.

7. Creating a real source water protection policy and implementing it in DEP programs;

8. Water conservation requirements, with effective monitoring and regulatory teeth;

9. Expanded hydrological monitoring network and more robust drought indicators;

10. Beefing up DEP resources and strengthening their control over private water companies;

11. Getting the Passiac/Hackensack Safe Yield Study on track;

12. Improved integration of water supply issues in DEP land use and water resource permit programs;

13. Improving science, monitoring, and data capabilities and coordination with the Highlands Council and RMP;

14. Educating the public on the need for water conservation.

15. Developing enforceable watershed specific and ecologically sustainable water budgets.

We welcome your additions to this list, as well as thoughts on how to address each concern.

Links to Water Supply Plan:

Debbie Mans, NY/NJ Baykeeper, speaks at Keyport press conference. (L-R: Dennis Suszkowski, Hudson River Foundation;Keyport local official (sorry, didn’t get her name!); Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-Bergen); Baykeeper project coordinator.

Does the Christie Administration want to be known for the Third World practice of failing to protect food supplies from bacterial diseases caused by human feces?

[Updates below]

The headline of this post summarizes my view, and I’ve said about all I can (see prior posts, this and this and this).

crabbing – poaching? No health risks here!

This quote pretty much sum it all up (watch the video here, quote is at time 2:02):

There are 600 million clams in this bay – any one of which a person can eat and do eat – raw – and get just as sick as from eating those [Baykeeper research] oysters.   So how is removing five one thousandths of one percent of the shellfish from Raritan Bay going to keep anyone safe?”  Christopher Len, Staff attorney, NY/NJ Baykeeper

And let’s recall and keep the focus on the deficiencies FDA found in NJ’s shellfish sanitation program – which are contrary to DEP Commissioner Martin’s sham, diversionary, and self serving  focus on Baykeeeper oyster restoration research.

FDA concerns are the real threats to public health and the $790 million shellfish industry. Raw sewage discharged from “combined sewer overflows” is the problem. Lack of investment to upgrade decrepit wastewater treatment infrastructure is the problem. Lack of pollution controls at sewage treatment plants and industry is the problem. Rampant uncontrolled over-development is the problem. Fertilizers, pesticides, septic systems, and pharmaceuticals flushed down the toilet are the problem. Not Baykeeper’s oyster research.

If those FDA deficiencies are not corrected – and DEP has not even submitted the required Action Plan that was due to FDA on August 2 – the FDA may SHUT DOWN NJ’s shellfish industry and people might get sick from eating contaminated shellfish.

So, if NJ DEP has become nothing more than a security guard for the shellfish industry’s products, at least the profitable industry that benefits from those  services could find the money to pay for them (or face shutdown). In the past, it hasn’t had to go this far – the legislature restored funding to the DEP and DHSS programs to enable them to meet minimum FDA food safety requirements.

Here is what FDA found:

In a June 2, 2010 warning letter accompanying a scathing report, the FDA took the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to task for:

• Insufficient DEP staffing to meet patrol frequency requirements, particularly for prohibited, restricted, and closed areas that represent the greatest public health risks;
• Failure by DEP to purchase a larger and seaworthy vessel required to patrol shellfish growing waters, including Delaware Bay;
• DHSS noncompliance with inspection requirements for certified shellfish dealers.
• A serious (30%) shortfall in DEP marine water sampling due to loss of employees, a problem compounded by DEP layoff and furlough policies;
• The need for microbial pollution source tracking in waters fouled by non-point source pollution, including the upper Navesink River, Sandy Hook Bay, and Shrewsbury River;
• Absence of state regulations that prohibit overboard discharge of human bodily wastesand prevent the public health risks that result from such discharges.

So let’s repeat the question:

Does the Christie Administration want to be known for the Third World practice of failing to protect food supplies from bacterial diseases caused by human feces?

ps – there was some important new information disclosed yesterday, although you can’t read it in the Star Ledger coverage.

Kirk Moore of the  Asbury Park Press reported it:

According to DEP officials the only suitable relocation site in New Jersey is the Maurice River Cove on Delaware Bay at the opposite end of the state, in Cumberland County.

“It’s very strange because it seems you could be transferring disease,” said Greg Remaud, Baykeeper’s director for conservation.

Transplanting shellfish from “prohibited/restricted” polluted Raritan Bay to “approved” clean Delaware Bay risks transmission of invasive organisms and would jeopardize the regulatory status (“approved”) of Delaware Bay shellfish growing waters. These kinds of risks would surely prompt strong industry opposition.

DEP’s so called recommended alternative makes no sense scientifically – and I doubt that the “alternative” was recommended by scientists at DEP.

Invasive organisms are a serious problem. It is more of Martin grasping at straws to cover his ass, digging the hole even deeper.

Raritan Bay, Keyport. Too polluted for fish, shellfish, people and other living thing 

[Update #1: 8/11/10 – NJN news, Ed Rodgers covers the story. Watch video]

NY/NJ Baykeeper held a press conference yesterday to protest DEP’s termination of their oyster restoration research project in Raritan Bay, as well as to build public support for passsage of legislation to over-ride DEP’s decision (see S2122 (Cardinale (R-Bergen)/Sarlo (D-Bergen,Essex, Passaic).

[Update #1 a) : in juvenile fashion, just moments after the Baykeeper news conference, DEP fired back with a misleading press release – but at least now they have been forced to address the FDA deficiencies, which they suppressed back in June, and only were forced to respond to after we put out the FDA evaluation Report.]

[Update #2: 10/5/10 – more evidence that the Emperor is a fraud that has no clothes. Excerpt of Jim ONeill’s story in today’s Bergen Record:

Oyster study banned in N.J. will continue in N.Y. waters

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

BY JAMES M. O’NEILL

New Jersey officials ordered the removal of experimental oyster reefs from the Raritan Bay, but New York has given permission for similar reefs in New York Harbor.

The NY/NJ Baykeeper, partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, today will announce plans to develop small reefs of oysters near Governors Island to see whether they can survive in polluted harbor waters so the state can eventually restore oysters to the harbor in larger numbers.

“We have expertise in creating experimental oyster beds from our work in New Jersey and we’re trying to transfer that to New York,” Debbie Mans, executive director of the NY/NJ Baykeeper, said Tuesday. “We’ve decided to focus our resources on New York since they’ve been more cooperative.”

She said the federal agencies have already donated the use of boats, expertise and technical resources for the project.  ~~~ end update]

[Update: 8/20/10 Jim O’neill writes a good story in today’s Bergen Record:  Sewer authorities want treatment rules eased ]

DEP: “The nitrate criterion is intended to protect infants from a potentially fatal blood disorder called methemoglobinemia or “blue baby syndrome.”

In a remarkably irresponsible move that puts public health directly as risk, local sewer authorities are pressuring DEP to gut current water quality standards set to protect drinking water from sewage discharges (see below for summary and links to the documents).

42 N.J.R. 1634(a)
Surface Water Quality Standards, N.J.A.C. 7:9B
Notice of Receipt of Petition for Rulemaking
Point of Application Policy for Nitrate and Total Dissolved Solids

Petitioner: Association of Environmental Authorities

Take notice that on June 18, 2010, the Department of Environmental Protection (Department) received a petition for rulemaking from Edward A. Kondracki, Esq., on behalf of the Association of Environmental Authorities (petitioner). The petitioner requests that the Department amend the Surface Water Quality Standards (SWQS), N.J.A.C. 7:9B, to establish an alternate point of application policy at N.J.A.C. 7:9B-1.5(i) that would allow the human health criteria for nitrate and total dissolved solids (TDS) to be applied at the point of intake for a potable water use, rather than at the point of discharge or the edge of any applicable regulatory mixing zone.

Sewer authorities are seeking to have their pollution measured not at the end of the pipe where it discharges to the river, but after lots of dilution, many miles downstream, where it is taken in for water supply.

They want to shift the burden for clean water from themselves to drinking water purveyors, the opposite of current “source water protection” and “polluter pays” policies. That may sound wonky and complex, but it’s not really. Think of it as asking the State Police to have a radar gun only at Exit 12 on the Turnpike, thus allowing you to go 100+ mph from Delaware Memorial or George Washington Bridge until that point.

The move comes at a time when US EPA, NJ DEP, and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) are engaged in a concerted effort to ramp up efforts to ratchet down on sewage treatment plant discharges in order to protect water quality.

Since 1985 – for over 25 years – DEP has fought a losing battle to force sewer plants in the Passaic Basin to cleanup their act and reduce pollution discharge in order to protect the water supply of north jersey.

Those stalled efforts were restarted in 2002, when DEP began to enforce water quality standards in facility permits using a Clean Water Act tool known as “water quality based effluent limits“.

In the Passaic, where a prior Whitman Administration settlement agreement provided a legal loophole from stricter WQBELs, DEP is seeking to ratchet down on the sewage plants under a broader watershed wide “Total Maximum Daily Load” (TMDL). The objective of the TMDL is to reduce pollution levels required to protect the water supply intakes and the Wanaque reservoir, where polluted river water is pumped.

Not many people understand that a series of 5 major water supply intakes on the Passaic and Pompton rivers are used directly for drinking water, or to refill the Wanaque, Canoe Brook, and Point View reservoirs (see Table 1, page 12). [Update: perhaps the public would know all about this if DEP complied with the law and updated the Water Supply Master Plan, which was last updated 14 years ago and is 9 years overdue the legal 5 year update due in 2001.]

These water supply sources are located directly down river from scores of sewage treatment plants and industrial pollution discharges (see Table 2 page 13 for a list, and Figure  2, page 9 for a map of the locations).

Many unregulated toxic chemicals are discharged to the river and are not treated before entering the water supply system. Nor can water supply purveyors monitor or remove all those chemicals. New science is finding these chemicals increasingly in water supplies and observing adverse human health and ecological effects at extremely low levels.

As Sierra Club’s Jeff Tittel has graphically put it – “In NJ, you can drink a beer on Friday night and have it in your coffee on Saturday morning”.

To expand the scope to ecological impacts and and broaden these efforts statewide, last April (2009), DEP adopted a “Nutrient Criteria Enhancement Plan” (NCEP) in order to comply with federal Clean Water Act.

Nutrients are chemicals phosphorus and nitrogen, which stimulate algae and plant growth that kills aquatic life via  a process known as eutrophication. This nitrogen loading from sewage treatment plants contributes to “dead zones” in NJ bays (NY/NJ harbor, Raritan, Delaware Bays) and near shore ocean.

According to the DEP NCEP:

3. Drinking Water Supply

All freshwaters in New Jersey are designated as potential drinking water supplies. … Adverse impacts to potable water supplies resulting from high nutrient concentrations include increased treatment costs and taste and odor complaints. High levels of nutrients may increase the amount of algae and turbidity in the water supply, to which purveyors respond by adding increased amounts of various chemicals, including coagulants, oxidants, and disinfectants such as chlorine, before the water can be used for drinking purposes. Increased levels of chlorine added to potable water results in the formation of higher levels of disinfection by-products (e.g., bromodichloromethane, bromoform, chloroform, dichloroacetic acid, and bromate) that have been shown to increase the risk of cancer (USEPA, 2007). Thus, nutrient over-enrichment can cause impairment of waters used by water purveyors for drinking water supplies. It should be noted that New Jersey’s existing surface water quality criterion for nitrate is designed to protect human-health, not aquatic life, so it is not related to eutrophication. The nitrate criterion is intended to protect infants from a potentially fatal blood disorder called methemoglobinemia or “blue baby syndrome”.

Based on new science, US EPA just announced plans in the Federal Register (@ page 15,552) to reconsider the health effects and standards for nitrates:

This latter report concluded that, under conditions that result in endogenous nitrosation, ingested nitrate or nitrite is probably carcinogenic to humans. In light of this information, EPA considers nitrate as a potential candidate for a new health effects assessment.”

In order to preempt these EPA, DEP, and DRBC efforts to cleanup NJ’s waters and protect public health, the local sewer authorities have gone on offense.

The scary thing is that the Christie/Martin DEP just may grant approval, under their “regulatory relief” policy.

Led by ANJEC, about 20 NJ groups are oppsing this move (see: SWQS petition.doc)

Press Release

For Immediate Release:  Monday, August 9, 2010
Contact:  Bill Wolfe (609) 397-4861; Kate Hornyan (202) 265-7337

Bid to Hike Sewage Content of New Jersey Rivers

Sewer Plants Ask Christie Administration to Relax Water Supply Protections

Trenton – Wastewater treatment companies have asked the Christie administration to allow more pollutants to be discharged into New Jersey rivers and streams. The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and a coalition of 17 other groups are opposing the proposed change in state Surface Water Quality Standards.

NJ’s rivers are a major water supply source. Current water quality standards are set to protect those drinking water supplies and limit the amount of dilution allowable in setting permit limits. However, current lax individual facility permit limits have caused ambient river water quality levels of nitrate to approach the 10 mg/L drinking water standard. This is a critical problem because there is not treatment to remove nitrates from the river source water. High pollution levels also limit the ability to refill depleted reservoirs with pumped river water, exacerbating drougth. Nitrates are known to cause “blue baby syndome”, which can be fatal. The cumulative discharge of nitrates also have significant downstream ecological effects on bays, estuaries and the ocean, contributing to excessive eutrophication and oxygen free “dead zones”.

“The last thing New Jersey rivers need is more sewage,” said Abbie Fair of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, which argues that the plan would violate both the federal Clean Water Act and the state Water Pollution Control Act. “It is unconscionable that the wastewater authorities want to turn our waterways into pollution treatment streams.”

By extending the “mixing zone” where pollutants exceed potable limits from the wastewater facility discharge pipe to drinking water intake points, the proposal would make longer stretches of receiving rivers and streams unsuitable for swimming, fishing or wildlife survival. Moreover, with shrinking water supplies, there may not be enough freshwater to dilute the treated sewage.

“Few people realize that sewer plants and industries discharge partially treated wastewater short distances upstream from water supply intakes. In summer when rainfall is low, 100% of the flow of the Passaic River is treated sewage water – there is no clean water left to dilute the outflow,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe. “My concern is that this proposal may have already been secretly green-lighted by the Christie administration under the guise of regulatory relief.”

Besides nitrates and dissolved solids, the proposal will also increase the amount of pesticides and other chemicals as well as un-metabolized pharmaceuticals, none of which are screened out of treated wastewater.

Under the state Administrative Procedures Act, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has 60 days from its July 19 publication in the New Jersey Register to grant, deny or seek an additional 30-day extension to render a decision on this wastewater petition.

Even if approved by DEP, the relaxed standards would be subject to review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for compliance with federal clean water standards.  In addition, EPA has announced that it is considering nitrate as a potential candidate for a new health effects assessment due to concerns that ingested nitrate or nitrite can be carcinogenic to humans.  Any reassessment would likely result in tighter nitrate limits that would cost water treatment plants far more than any savings they could hope to achieve by this proposal.

###

Read the coalition letter

Look at the pre-existing weakness of state water quality standards

[Update: 8/10/10 – Bergen Record writes a good story: “Drought watch continues for Bergen and Passaic Counties“.

But at some point, the State Climatologist and reporters have to link the heat wave and drought to its cause: global warming. Doing so would force a discussion of the Christie Administration’s across the board attack on policies, regulations, programs, science, resources, and institutions related to global warming and water resource protections. And someone needs to connect the dots between Passaic River pollution and threats to water supply, both quantity and quality. end update]

Last week, DEP issued a “drought watch“, so we thought that a perfect excuse for a Friday hike up in reservoir country. Hit this link for DEP drought indicator data, but enjoy photo’s:

Wanaque, from Monksville dam (8/6/10)

Wanaque, from bridge in Ringwood (8/6/10)

Clinton, from just off Clinton Road (8/6/10)

Canistear (8/6/10)

Monksville (8/6/10)

[Update 2: 11/8/10 – excellent historical piece exposes global warming denial – click here]

Update 1:  8/19/10 – here’s an example of excellent journalism: “Plant growth declines as global warming causes drought” ]

Studies show that the American public is practically illiterate when it comes to science, and deeply misinformed about government and politics.

Aside from the schools, the institution in society that is most responsible for an informed and educated public is the media - which has been dubbed “the fourth estate” precisely for those reasons.

It is common knowledge that the media as an institution has collapsed - which is evidenced by increasingly shallow news coverage (thus the “Freak Show”) and the perversion of our non-existent public discourse and democratic politics.

When public ignorance of science meets media Freak Show on a public policy issue of massive importance, we get – the Global Warming disaster.

Today’s Star Ledger story “N.J. scientist who coined “global warming” term tries to avoid limelight 35 years later“ provides a perfect example.

It seems that media is incapable of engaging serious issues in other than human interest stories.

It also seems like the coverage is incapable of providing the context or history on the science and its relatiosnhip to public policy and politics.

And, as usual, policy and democracy are disparaged.

I hardly know where to begin to discuss all this - perhaps the story’s headline is as good a place as any to start.

What do the phrases to “coin a term” and “avoid the limelight“ generally mean when describing something?  That it is shallow, or glamorous? How can a reporter effectively denigrate her own work as “the limelight”?

To me, in the context of the global warming debate, the headline makes it all sound superficial. Perhaps worse,  from a science perspective, in this case, “avoiding the limelight” amounts to an abdication of responsibility.

These negative perceptions are reinforced by the distorted history of global warming science presented in the story.

But one particular sentence really set me off.

That sentence reveals a distorted view of science, democratic discourse, and activism, which simultaneously are dismissed as a mere “sideshow in political battles”:

“Unwilling to become a sideshow in the political battles around climate policy, Broecker distances himself from scientists who are climate-change activists, such as James Hansen of NASA. Instead he strives to do just what he did in the 1960s: untangle the mysteries of the Earth from clues left by the ice ages.

So let’s correct the record and exert some push-back against the premises of this story:

1. Jim Hansen is a Profile in Courage. He should be embraced. This characterization of his work as a “political sideshow” is an extreme insult to Hansen.

In fact, the void created by scientists (and journalists) who view their role as somehow above the fray of “politics” explains quite a bit about why the public is totally ignorant about global warming and why corporations have been so successful in advancing propaganda and lies used by the global warming deniers.

A scientist who spoke out to publicize the fact that cigarettes cause cancer and that the tobacco industry lies, would never be described as engaging in a “sideshow in political battles”.

Just the opposite is closer to the truth: one might rightfully describe a scientist that knew that and did nothing publicly to speak out and rebut those lies a coward.

2. It’s been said that “politics ain’t beanbag”, but it also isn’t  a “sideshow”.

That cynical view has fed an appalling degree of public apathy, which only enables the rule of elite special interests and erodes democracy.

3.  History matters.

The entire premise of the story is that Broecker was a groundbreaking scientist working on an “obscure” issue (in 1975).

Broecker and his paper may have been “obscure” in 1975, but, while it was nowhere near what it is today, global warming science was NOT obscure in 1975. In fact, the mechanism of global warming from CO2 was described by Arrhenius back in 1891 – (see this)

In 1975 I was a freshman at Clarkson College (now University), where I took my fist environmental science courses.

Today’s story prompted me to take a peek at the 2 introductory text’s we used: “Man’s Impact on Environment” (Detwyler, 1971) and “Environment – Resources, Pollution and Society”“ (Murdoch, 1975). Here’s what I found:

Detwyler, in Chapter 13 titled “All Other Factors Being Constant” (which was the title of a 1968 paper by Reid Bryson published in Weatherwise, Vol. 21 page 56) introductory note begins:

“The extent of man’s impact on the atmosphere is now global… There is now good evidence that air pollution is associated with certain changes in global climate.

…From the 1880’s to the 1940’s, the average temperature of the earth rose by at least 0.7 degrees F. This warming may be a consequence of the increased carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, which during the same period rose by 11% (@page 167)

Bryson’s  1968 paper concludes:

“All other factors being constant, an increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide, by decreasing the ease by which radiant energy leaves the earth’s surface, should cause world temperatures to rise.” (@p. 172)

Global warming was discussed in Murdoch, Chapter 15 “Man, Weather and Climate” by Gordon J.F. MacDonald. That book states:

“The most complete calculations of the net effect of altering the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere are those of Manabe and Weatherald (citing a 1967 paper from the J. of Atmospheric Science, 24: 241-259). These numerical calculations show that increasing CO2 content results in warming of the entire lower atmosphere.” (@p.389)

Human interest stories are an awful vehicle to transmit science and policy stories. But in doing human interest stories, at least the  science should be given the correct historical context.

The Ledger story today made it appear that Broecker was breaking new ground in 1975. Not so.

Studies show an appalling degree of public ignorance on global warming, while industry funded groups poison the well of public discourse with lies and misinformation.

The media must take some responsibility for these failures.

But this is all from a bitter hippie blogger in the trenches of “the sideshow of political battles”.