Is it the last straw - climate change effecting wine?!

I daresay, an issue becomes very real for many Americans when it begins to effect our liquor. Vigneron Independent, a French vintners association, is warning that their wines will become more "Mediterranean". According to an expert cited in Business Week, "Climate change has sped up harvests in Burgundy, altered the taste of Alsatian wines and disrupted hydration patterns of grapes grown along France's Mediterranean coast." The association president notes that we may begin seeing wines grown in Britain and Scandinavia. There is an upside though, again noted in Business Week: ""To be really honest, we benefit from global warming because we don't have to chaptalize our wines any more," said Jacky Martinon, a winemaker in Burgundy, referring to a process of injecting sugar into wine."

Wine Spectator had an entire issue dedicated to green wine making. It is a really good issue and Wine Spectator one of my favorite monthly periodicals.

COP15 news of the day:

• Climate postcards, NY Times
• Handicapping COP15's outcome, Washington Post
• Sideshow: Inhofe
  

Health effects of climate change

I noted in  my Thanksgiving Update that I would turn next to the recent articles in the Lancet that discuss new models that show direct links between health and climate change. As the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Governor Kathleen Sebelius (another great Kansan) noted, "As greenhouse gas emissions go down, so do deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases." What is novel about the series of six papers is that it does not just track the increase of infectious disease like Dengue or West Nile, instead it models out what most consider "industrialized nation health issues" like heart attacks.


So what do we know. Climate change promotes environments that mosquitoes love. Thus, we are already seeing dramatic increases of Dengue and Typhoid in the Philippines. From this 2008 article, "changes in cholera, typhoid fever and malaria have been predicted due to the changing pattern of rainy season." In a recent BBC story (video, Nov. 9, 2009), the spread of Dengue is at "almost epidemic levels" in Jakarta as a newly emerging/resurging disease. The sad aspect of the story is that they are fogging insecticide that will have its own health effect on the people of Jakarta.

The World Health Organization began warning the world about the effects of climate change nearly two decades ago. (Overview here by Washington Post; full list of WHO publications) As an American health professional, I can say that the amount of literature used in the U.S. is small and the community isn't aware of most of the literature or issues because most feel that it is an issue for third-world countries. But that is changing.

It is clear that the new Secretary has been pushing the issue of climate change into the American medical community. On November 25, a joint release of the Lancet study lead to a cross-continent launch event of the findings. Generally, the study conducted in industrialized and developing nations, showed that mitigation of greenhouse gas emission improved human health. Focusing on key sectors that produce significant carbon emission, the series of six papers walk through mitigation techniques that benefits human health. These areas are household energy use, urban land transport, electricity generation, food and agriculture, and short-lived green-house pollutants. The most compelling aspect of the studies for me is that I finally have a counter argument that "mitigation is too expensive." Now, this study allows me to say, carbon mitigation decreases the need for costly health care services and enables more citizens to be able bodied laborers. These findings will enable new discussions about cost due to previously unpredicted expensive health outcomes of doing nothing in all countries - including the United States.

Executive summary.

Key findings:

• Replacement of cook stoves in developing countries could significantly reduce air pollution and the risk for acute respiratory tract infections in young children and chronic respiratory and heart disease in adults. An estimated 1 million children are dying globally each year due to respiratory infections induced or exacerbated by inefficient burning of solid fuels. The estimated effect by 2020 of the proposed Indian stove program would cut the above disease prevalence by a sixth in the nation and halve the country's cancer cases.
  
• More foot and bike travel in London could reduce stroke and heart disease by 10-20 percent; breast cancer by 12-13 percent; dementia by 8 percent; and depression by 5 percent.
• The same reduction of oil-based fuel travel in Delhi would reduce heart disease and stroke by 10-25 percent; and diabetes by 6-17 percent.
• In the agriculture sector (did you know beef is the biggest carbon emitter of meats?), the study notes that a 30 percent reduction in livestock production is needed to meet global carbon reduction targets. This would reduce heart disease in the UK by around 15 percent 

In short, the environmental improvements shown here are significant and enough to merit action in and of themselves!

Another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the American health care sector accounts for nearly a tenth of the U.S. carbon emissions. The study found (not surprisingly) that hospitals are the number 1 source of carbon emissions. The researchers attributed this to high energy demands for temperature control, ventilation and lighting in large medical buildings. The second largest source was the pharmaceutical industry which the authors attributed the high costs of manufacturing and researching drugs in addition to transportation to distribute prescription drugs. Overall, the study found that the health care sector produces 8 percent of the U.S.' carbon emissions.

In an earlier study, released by the World Health Organization,the energy consumption costs of American health care system adds over $600 million in direct health care cost and more than $5 billion in indirect costs.

One of the groups I pay a great deal of attention to is Practice Green Health which is bringing energy efficient and other sustainability projects to hospitals to decrease carbon outputs. Practice Green Health is a network of "individual hospitals, healthcare systems, businesses in the healthcare community and other like-­‐minded stakeholders engaged in the greening of healthcare to improve the health of patients, healthcare workers, and the environment."

With these studies, it is time for health care leaders to do our part to reduce our consumption of energy. It is time for us to be part of the solution, which in turn makes our patients healthier.

Thanksgiving Update!

As I noted yesterday, it is official that the U.S. is committing to targets that are in line with pending federal legislation and President Obama will attend to make this commitment before the world in Copenhagen. The NY Times has a great story on it. Obama to Go to Copenhagen With Emissions Target. Sen. Kerry (D-MA) is calling this a "game changer." I understand his sentiment as the Bush Regime was very against any commitment of any targets, until the end of his Administration. But is it? Maybe for achieving a political accord (Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action - AWG-LCA8) but the Kyoto Protocol (Conference of Parties on the Kyoto Protocol - CMP5; Ad Hoc Working Group for Annex 1 Parties under Kyoto Protocol - AWG-KP10) is stalled without passed American legislation ensuring that not only will the U.S. be a signatory to the accord but they ratified it before its signed off by others. But time will tell. I would love to be wrong.

Now lets talk about setting targets "in the range of” 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050." The League, of which I am a delegate, supports a target of atleast 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80-95 percent by 2050. So this is nearly in line with the League's position that is joined by numerous other organizations in the National Call to Action.

So where is COP15 today on the negotiations? In the 174 page Barcelona Report of the AWG-LCA7, the targets are set as such (pp. 64-65):

• "global emissions must peak by 2015, and then be reduced by more than 85 percent below 1990 levels by 2050"
• "Parties shall collectively reduce global emissions by atleast 45 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and by atleast 95 percent from 1990 levels by 2050."
• "aggregate greenhouse gas emissions by developed country Parties shall be reduced by [25-40] percent by 2020 compared with 1990."
• "Parties shall further collectively reduce global emissions by 50-85 percent by 2050 compared with the 2000 level."

So what does that bracketed red number in the third bullet mean? Well it means that the target is in negotiation. What is notable here is that President Obama's recommendation of 17 percent is well below the lower negotiated target of 25 percent. It will be very interesting to see where the U.S. negotiators take us. My guess, since I am a betting woman, is that we will end up trying to negotiate lower, get pushed by the EU and end up at 25 percent. Which means that the U.S. will need to change the pending legislation in the Senate (House passed version is 17 percent, the Senate version is 20 percent in 2020). That means that this will all come down to language used in reconciliation as Congressional negotiators come up with one bill between the two chambers.

And what about health care reform? Well it has been confirmed that our Congressional Delegation ("codel" in the COP talk) may be delayed. According to a source from the Majority Leader's office, if the vote is pending on health care reform, the legislators will not be able to go to Copenhagen. This again underscores the importance of Obama attending to demonstrate the American commitment to curb carbon emissions.

And yes, I am loving doing all this analysis and reading long negotiated texts, using all my Model UN skillz and what law school taught me to do when looking at these crazy documents. I am getting a great deal of personal satisfaction out of this! I am a geek that someday will get a real life.

Tomorrow - I will discuss health care and global warming and the two new studies out of the Lancet.

So as this is the Thanksgiving edition, I am truly wishing you and your family a very wonderful Thanksgiving. We all have a great deal to be thankful for. So, like I did when I first moved to Michigan - having been introduced to the idea by a friend of a friend - here are my Gratitudes:

I am grateful for:

• A healthy family and furry children (first time in a long time);
• Amazing friends that inspire me every day to do better;
  
• A beautiful home where I can play in the sand and watch the setting sun over the ocean any day I like; and
  
• The opportunity and God-given ability to help the world in activities such as this and my other volunteer activities.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Announcing Jen's blog for COP15!

I promised that I would blog for the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change - and I am actually going to do it! So Eric, here is the first and possibly only time I am going to blog for several days straight!

To keep up with my posts, you can subscribe for notices. Just hit the subscribe button at the bottom of the post (by the comments area).

I actually don't leave until December 4, but here I will post parts of my research, what I am told the experience is going to be like and my concerns about the Conference.

None of the comments here represent the official position of the League of Women Voters of the United States.

Recent media coverage of my trip: Is your city green? Sierra Club on the hunt to find out (Orange County Register)

Announcement of delegation by the League of Women Voters
LWV recently secured its official Observer status for the United Nations Framework Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen this December. The following League members were selected to serve as delegates to the conference: Carole Conors, (MD), Chair of the LWV Lobby Corps; Sarah Diefendorf, former LWVUS Board member and Chair of the Climate Change Task Force (CA); Ellyn Murphy, (WA), LWVUS Climate Change Task Force; Jennifer Searfoss,(CA); Ellen (Mel) Bromberg, (WI); Claire Vanderslice, (WI);and Lauralee Barbaria, (CA). All of these delegates have taken an active role in working on climate change issues both for the LWV and in their professional work; they are making this trip at their own expense as representatives of the LWV. Special thanks to Doris Schapira, LWV UN Observer, for her work in navigating the successful application process. We are proud to have our own delegation on the ground keeping us informed!