By FELICITY BARRINGER Top 10 lists are often relentlessly negative: the 10 most-polluting industrial plants, the 10 most befouled beaches, and so on.
The spirit of this list is slightly different: Good or bad, these are environmental moments in 2010 that are most likely to reverberate in the world of environmental news in 2011 and beyond.
The Spill: On April 20, a blowout in BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig. Over the next 14 weeks, government scientists estimate, about 172 million gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico.
For weeks it seemed the ferocious leak would not be plugged; the spreading stain of surface oil was mapped and pursued the way the country once followed the progress of Allied armies in Normandy.
When efforts to stop the flow finally succeeded in July, the surface oil disappeared rapidly, but not before dozens of miles of coastline in five states were fouled, hundreds of pelicans, dolphins,and other animals were covered in the goo, fishing was halted for months and a six-month moratorium on new drilling in deep offshore waters was imposed by the Obama administration. Next year will be consumed with legal efforts to see how much more BP must pay. It has already set aside $20 billion in a compensation fund for spill victims.
The Bill: Many environmentalists seeking to curb the heat-trapping emissions that cause climate change saw 2010 as their year. But after nearly two decades of planning and cajoling and restructuring a program to cap greenhouse-gas pollution and allow polluting industries and financiers to trade pollution allowances, the Senate bill enshrining all this complexity died.
A companion measure had squeaked through the House in 2009, but no amount of compromise could save the bill sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. A third partner, Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, abandoned the effort in the spring.
The absence of legislation puts the Environmental Protection Agency in the spotlight in 2011; its regulations to curb the emissions linked to climate change go into effect Jan. 2, to the ire of many in Congress. Virtually all the Republicans elected for the first time this fall are skeptical of the evidence that the burning of fossil fuels is driving climate change.
The Heat: The chances are extremely good that 2010 will rank as the hottest year on record, at least to date, although the final verdict will not be available until the second week in January. But in northern regions like Hudson Bay, where the absence of ice was prolonged, temperature increases were greatest. Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were measured as high as 390 parts per million; 350 parts per million is the commonly-accepted threshold beyond which serious changes in sea levels and precipitation may occur. A summertime heat wave in Russia led to a series of peat fires that choked the air and threatened to spread to Ukrainian forests, where it could have unlocked radioactivity taken up by the trees after the catastrophic explosion of the plant nearly 25 years ago. (Authorities are also mulling over plans for guided tours of the “forbidden zone” around the reactor.)
The Reefs: The withering of coral reefs around the world accelerated, thanks to the increasing acidity of the oceans — caused by the absorption of the excess carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere — and their rising temperatures of the waters. There were indications that, at least in some regions of the globe, the bleaching and sometimes death of these corals in 2010 could exceed those of 1998, the worst year of coral die-off. Often called “the rain forests of the sea,” reefs not only nurture hundreds of species of fish, but also are at the center of a thriving tourism industry.
The Drought: The big question on the Colorado River, the source of some or all water for more than 25 million people in the Southwest, is whether 2011 will mark the end of the 11-year drought or make the tally an even dozen , forcing federal authorities to declare the first-ever water shortage on the river.
In the first week of November, Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the construction of Hoover Dam and the chief supply for the farms of southeastern California and for cities like San Diego, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix, reached a new low; its surface level was measured at 1081.90 feet above sea level, more than a foot below the previous low, recorded in 1956. With Lake Powell, upstream behind the Glen Canyon Dam, delivering high levels of water to Lake Mead daily, Mead’s water levels are back up above 1084 feet this week.
Elsewhere around the world, the overdrawing of surface waters has made farmers from Texas to China draw more water from underground aquifers, which are increasingly depleted. The search — and competition — for water supplies will intensify in 2011.
Solar Power: It was a topsy-turvy year for solar power in the United States. The good news was the development of promising new technologies to make solar cells more efficient; the approval of massive solar plants in the California desert; and the expansion of new policies and business practices to encourage their use everywhere from homes to store roofs to parking lots.
But Chinese manufacturers of solar cells were taking over a larger and larger segment of the market; by one estimate Chinese products represented 40 percent of total sales of photovoltaic products in California, the epicenter of the North American solar industry, where drought-plagued farmers started putting up photovoltaic arrays on San Joaquin Valley fields that once grew row crops. In 2011, the industry will continue its efforts to bring down the price of solar electricity, hoping to make it competitive with electricity generated by fossil fuels.
Electric Cars: Two new models, Chevrolet’s hybrid Volt and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf went on sale in 2010 and will become a growing part of the national automotive fleet in 2011. But they do not come cheap. The Leaf’s selling price is $33,600, in selected United States markets; the 20,000 slated for sale here have already been reserved. A New York Times reviewer wrote of the Volt, which sells for $41,000, “G.M. has nailed it, creating a hatchback that feels peppy and mainstream yet can sip less fuel than any gas- or diesel-powered car sold in America.” Both the Volt and the Leaf qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit.
The Oil Sands Pipeline: In July, the State Department postponed its decision on whether to approve a controversial 2,000-mile, $7 billion pipeline project to deliver crude oil from Canadian tars sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The oil would be drawn from 178 billion barrels of proven reserves percolating through the sands of northern Alberta; the energy-intensive process of separating the oil from the earth has been the focus of environmental opposition. A decision by the Obama administration on the project — which could allow Canada to export up to 1.1 million barrels of oil daily — is expected in a few months.
Fracking: Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been a common method used by the natural gas industry to open up sealed pockets of gas in underground formations. But the impact of the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals on groundwater is not well documented. That has been a matter of sharp concern in eastern states like Pennsylvania and New York, which lie above the gas-rich area known as the Marcellus Shale. New York’s governor, David A. Paterson, rejected a legislative moratorium on such drilling, replacing it with his own, which lasts until July but narrows the definition of the prohibited kinds of drilling. While the companies are eager to start their drills, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a study, mandated by Congress, of the technique’s effect on drinking water supplies. The results are expected in 2012.
Tigers and Bears: With major reports on biodiversity all showing an accelerating loss of species on land and in the oceans, attention was focused most closely on polar bears, whose sea ice habitat is melting for longer periods almost every year. A team of climate scientists and biologists is promoting the idea of setting aside a “sea ice refuge” — a swath of the Arctic from northwest Greenland west through northern Canada where the ice remains thickest. Another study predicted that polar bears would breed with grizzlies, creating hybrids that are less resilient. Meanwhile, fears of the extinction of the wild tiger prompted a summit of sorts in Moscow, at which officials agreed to a goal of doubling the number of wild tigers — now about 3,200 — by 2022.
SOURCE: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/2010-an-untameable-spill-an-unpassable-bill/?ref=earth
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