Vibrio and rising water temperatures - Ugh.

This one is gross, folks. A bacteria that has various forms as cholera and as a flesh-eating infection that kills within days. It's Vibrio, which is becoming more prevalent in the Chesapeake Bay due to global warming. Take a look at the article in Stories that Matter but be prepared- the first thing you'll see is the flesh-decaying hand of a man who lost four fingers to the disease. The jist: More people die of Vibrio than they do of shark bites, and Vibrio infections are increasing nationally at a rate of 7.1% per year:

Since 2000, a Natural Resources News Service survey shows that Vibrio wound infections have increased each year and the reports are spreading northward to places where swimmers, fishermen and the emergency room doctors who see them are less likely to recognize the dangerous pathogen. For example, Vibrio wound infections have increased from one victim reported to Maryland public health authorities in 2000 to 13 reported last year in that state...

“The outbreak in Alaska is a good example of how global warming is bringing infectious diseases northward,” ... The Chesapeake Bay has also seen a rise in water temperatures, and the data collected by NRNS show an increase in Vibrio wound infections in Maryland and Virginia.

“In the last couple of decades, water temperatures in the Bay have increased by two degrees and by three to five degrees in some of its tributaries,” said Dr. Kevin Sellner, Director of the Chesapeake Research Consortium.

Though Sellner hasn’t studied the relation between water temperature and Vibrio infections, he says that, “these increases are significant and if water temperatures continue increasing it is only logical to assume that there will be an increase in pathogens.”

...The only sure protection is to stay out of the water if you have an open wound and to wear protective clothing when handling raw shellfish.

...Doug Lemke of Oxford, Maryland lost his father to Vibrio vulnificus who contracted the infection while fishing. 2005 Chilly Orme of Mayo, Maryland was able to save his leg after contracting Vibrio vulnificus while wading for 5 minutes in Rhodes River. June 2006

Air conditioning

Last night I had the girls over and Shelvis was nice enough to clean the house (!) and mow the lawn (!!) and run the dishwasher (!!!) while I made crab dip. Anyway the end result of all of this baking and steaming the place was that I got really hot. Shelvis on the other hand put his leather jacket on because he is made of ice. The point of my story is that I turned the air conditioning on even though it was only 78 outside. I can's stand humidity. And It would take 14.5 earths to sustain my habits. Less than the average Average American? Yes, but only by 5%. I thought I was doing really well with this living 7 blocks from work and not driving thing but not that well, apparently. Dammit! Anyway I checked out my ecological footprint today. Do it if you want to feel decadent, like "Apres moi, le deluge."

The Light Bulb Wars: Switch to CFLs or LEDs?

I know not everyone is a geek. Not everybody wants to calculate costs per kilowatt hour (KWh) for light bulbs or figure out which ones are most efficient and cause the least greenhouse gas emissions. That's why you have me. And that's why I have the light bulb comparison spreadsheet from productdose. Because I don't feel like doing it either but I want the information.

The jist is that if you want to save both energy and money, you should buy compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. If you want to save even more energy and are less concerned about the money, you should buy Light Emitting Diode bulbs (LEDs). Since the up-front costs of the LEDs are so high, it's probably still a better idea to buy CFLs for most purposes. The more your electricity costs, the more you save by using LED bulbs. If you can get LED bulbs cheaper than the $54.95 per bulb quoted here, then this calculation favors LEDs even more.

Here is a summary of information about your three favorite types of light bulbs with the light equivalent of an incandescent 60 watt bulb, using a cost per KWh of ten cents:

• Incandescent bulbs (the regular old light bulb) last an average of 1,500 hours and cost $1.34 each. In an average house with 30 light bulbs they will use about 3,285 KWh per year, emit carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) of about 4,500 lbs (using estimates for Maryland), and cost $328.50 in electricity per year and 53.80 in light bulbs, a total of $382.30.
• Compact Fluorescents (CFLs) last an average of 10,000 hours and cost $2.98 each. In an average house with 30 light bulbs they will use about 767 KWh per year, emit carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) of about 1,051 lbs (using estimates for Maryland), and cost $76.65 in electricity per year and $17.88 in light bulbs, a total of $94.53, a savings of $287.77 over incandescent bulbs.
• Light Emitting Diode bulbs (LEDs) last an average of 60,000 hours and cost $54.95 each. In an average house with 30 light bulbs they will use about 329 KWh per year, emit carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) of about 451 lbs (using estimates for Maryland), and cost $32.85 in electricity per year and $54.95 in light bulbs, a total of $87.80, a savings of $294.50 over incandescent bulbs. Buying 30 of these bulbs costs $1,648.85 so it's more cost effective to buy CFLs at this point for most uses unless your electricity costs are high or if you can find cheaper LED bulbs.

Note that all CO2e emissions are zero if you use renewable energy or purchase green tags to support the production of renewable energy.

Community Supported Agriculture in Frederick

News flash! I just got wind that there is one spot left in the community supported agriculture (CSA) pickup in Frederick, MD and that there are still spots open in Creagerstown. For those of you that shop at the farmers markets, this is a way of getting a fresh box every Wednesday of local-in season produce. I signed up for this summer. The pickup is very close to our neighborhood (I think it's Toll House Avenue) and the farms are local and organic. If you are interested but hesitate at the commitment (it's $405 for the summer, which goes from the end of May to the end of September, costing about $21 per week) you can always go in on it with someone else. I am sure I will have plenty to share because Shelvis and I are signed up for what amounts to enough vegetables for a family of four (I think it's still cheaper than the grocery store- we shall see...). Here is the link- ignore that the frederick one is supposedly full. http://www.summercreekfarm.com/CSAMTM.html. You can also email Rosemarie Williams at r.schoen@starpower.net to ask her questions about the Mountains to Meadows CSA. I recently wrote a blog about Agriculture and global warming and learned that a great way to reduce your footprint is to buy local organic produce.

Real costs of flying in the big blue sky

I am very excited about the Real Costs website. It is a Firefox (alternate web browser to Internet Explorer- get it if you don't have it) plugin that "inserts emissions data into travel related e-commerce websites. The first version adds CO2 emissions information to airfare websites such as Orbitz.com, United.com, Delta.com, etc. Following versions will work with car directions, car rental, and shipping websites. Think of it like the nutritional information labeling on the back of food... except for emissions. "

Is this cool or what? Try it out.

I also learned from Real Costs wiki site that:

• the average U.S. citizen is responsible for 24.3 tons of CO2 emissions per year. Keep in mind that an acre of trees only removes 2.5 tons of CO2 per year. So perhaps you'd better get to work planting or preserving the 10 acres of trees you need to offset yourself;
• 1 tree removes 55 lbs CO2/year and takes 40 years to remove 1 ton;
• the emissions for cars and trucks per mile is .971 lbs CO2e/mi versus riding in an airplane: 1.36 lbs of CO2e per mile per passenger versus riding the bus: 0.05lbs CO2/mile/person

These are good numbers to remember. Our lesson for today: plant trees and ride the bus.

Random Conversation

I take cello lessons and I am my teacher's oldest student. He says he likes having me there even though I never practice, so I keep showing up. Half the time we chat about gardening. And then I horribly botch some minuet and the student who comes after me is sitting there snickering because she mastered that piece two years ago. Go ahead! Pick on me! I am vulnerable! Anyway I was talking to my teacher about gardening in such strange weather and mentioned that it was supposed to rain yesterday. The snickering student (who writes music and just finished her hundredth composition and also swims competitively and is going to burn out in college) said that the weather is weird, that we are running about about a month late, and that we are getting the rain in May that we normally get in April. Which is kind of partly true but I held my tongue back from analysis and asked her, "why do you think that is?" And the smart overachieving young Beethoven said, "Global Warming!" And I felt gratified. Even if I never practice and my minuet sounds like crap. Because at least the Future President of the USA gets it.

Agriculture and Global Warming

I ran into my friends Ilene and Phil the other day at a concert at our local Weinberg Center. Ilene and Phil run House in the Woods farm, which is a local organic farm in Adamstown MD with Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA). They also sell awesome heirloom tomato plants and sponsor summer concerts (which I have never been to but I hear are great). Ilene's tomato plants are running about a week behind this year because of the cold March. She suggested I wait until after Mother's day to plant this year because of that cold snap and because of the unpredictability in the weather. That of course got us talking about global climate change and the impacts on agriculture. The EPA brief that I blogged about a few weeks ago said some junk about how agriculture would be able to move into new areas that become more suitable- tell that to the maple syrup farmers in the Northeast who have lost 10% of their harvest in the past couple of years due to an increase in temperatures. Tell them to go to Canada. Go ahead. Tell them. I am sure they will love Canada and that the Canadians will welcome them with open arms.

Anyway, Ilene sent me a link to an article in the Local Harvest Newsletter from April that she got about global warming and agriculture. The jist- agriculture will be heavily negatively impacted by global climate change. A solution? Buy local produce to prevent the use of fossil fuels for shipping and eat more plant-based foods to reduce the energy used to produce your food. A good quote from the article:

Adapting to the coming changes and stopping further harm will require us relearn to be frugal, to conserve our resources, and to think and act in terms of generations ahead, and not just focused on immediate gratification.