**FILE** Smoke rises from the Colstrip Steam Electric Station, a coal burning power plant in in Colstrip, Mont., on July 1, 2013. Colstrip is kind of plant called on by President Barack Obama's climate change plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. On Feb. 24, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the unanimous federal appeals court ruling that upheld the Environmental Protection Agency's unprecedented regulations, aimed at reducing the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The case comes to the court amid Obama's
increasing use of his executive authority to act on environmental and
other matters when Congress doesn't, or won't. (Associated Press)
A co-founder of Greenpeace told a Senate panel on Tuesday that there is no scientific evidence to back claims that humans are the “dominant cause” of climate change. Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee environmental groups like Greenpeace use faulty computer models and scare tactics in further promoting a political agenda, Fox News reported.
“There
is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are
the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over
the past 100 years,” Mr. Moore
said. “Today, we live in an unusually cold period in the history of
life on earth and there is no reason to believe that a warmer climate
would be anything but beneficial for humans and the majority of other
species.
“It is important to recognize, in the face of dire
predictions about a [two degrees Celsius] rise in global average
temperature, that humans are a tropical species,” he continued. “We
evolved at the equator in a climate where freezing weather did not
exist. The only reasons we can survive these cold climates are fire,
clothing, and housing.
Lake Eucumbene in Old
Adaminaby, Australia. Rainwater collection played a key role in getting
several Australian cities through their recent 'millenium drought'.
Photo: Mark Nolan/Getty Images
Texas voters last night approved the creation of a water
bank expected to fund nearly $30bn in water infrastructure projects in
the coming decades. The passage of Proposition 6 means the state will
begin putting its 2012 State Water Plan – which calls for more than $50b
in spending on new water infrastructure by 2060 – into action.
The
project list is heavy on big new pipelines and reservoirs (including a
controversial $3.3bn reservoir in East Texas to service the Dallas-Fort
Worth metroplex 170 miles away), and also features agricultural
conservation and municipal water reuse projects.
But advocates of
rainwater collection say a key tool for water security is missing from
the plan. "Rainwater harvesting was not recommended as a water
management strategy to meet needs since the volume of water may not be
available during drought conditions," the plan states.
Rainwater
harvesting – one of the most efficient ways of reducing water demand and
related infrastructure costs, according to Tamim Younos, president of
Virginia's Cabell Brand Center – has gained popularity in recent years.
To protect themselves from water shortage or price increases, some of
the world's largest companies – such as Walmart, Home Depot, and TD
Ameritrade – have been installing their own projects.
While Texas
offers a number of incentives for rainwater harvesting, including
allowing governmental districts to exempt such systems from property
taxes, inclusion of the practice in the State Water Plan would have
certainly accelerated the trend.
Rainwater collection played a key role in getting several Australian cities through their recent "millennium drought". But the practice routinely gets overlooked in the United States, as underlined by the Texas plan.
David
Crawford, founder of Virginia-based Rainwater Management Solutions,
attributes the limited US rollout to resistant utilities, relatively low
water costs, a confusing melange of local codes and ignorance about the
practice.
"There's these municipalities that say, 'Oh, no, we
don't want you to flush our toilets with rainwater because we'll lose
budget money on it,'" Crawford said. "The reality of it is they don't
have the water to sell in many cases."
Corporate rainwater collection rises
In May, online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation consolidated five offices in Omaha, Nebraska, into a single $250m, 12-story tower expected to receive the LEED Platinum certification.
Along
with an abundance of natural lighting, solar-heated hot water, and
wind-powered parking lot lights, the building boasts a rainwater
harvesting system that waters the landscaping and flushes the toilets.
All together, the green measures cut building maintenance costs in half,
claims spokesperson Kim Hillyer.
"Anytime you move 2,000 people
into one location you worry about how many natural resources you're
going to drain, and if we can limit that then we've done our job in
being a good community partner," Hillyer said.
Box stores with
large roofs and significant landscaping also appear to be a natural fit
for rainwater harvesting, which typically involves collecting rainwater
from rooftops, storage in large tanks, and filtration and pumping for
non-potable needs. The American Water Works Association estimates that
80% of the typical commercial building's water use goes to non-potable
uses, such as flushing toilets, watering landscaping, and for cooling
and processing water.
