Cold weather kills electric car range, climates in only 16 states are moderate enough to be best option for electric cars-mnn

Climate Central found "that electric cars are the best option for the climate in 16 states."
 
2/27/15, "Cold weather kills electric car range," mnn.com, Jim Motavalli

Image caption: "Carbon dioxide emissions per mile go up in colder climates, worsening the environmental equation. (Graphic: Environmental Science and Technology)"

"Range is a huge issue with EV owners, and for very good reasons. The Volt has the gas engine in reserve, but 100 miles is the standard top end for battery electrics. And that’s only under optimal conditions; bad weather makes the range much worse.

A new study published in Environmental Science and Technology (EST) looks at the range-and-weather equation, and reports, based on driver testimony, that cold days (using the heater) or very hot ones (air conditioning) can reduce range up to 40 percent. Remember that gas cars generate their own electricity for accessories like that; in electrics, everything drains the battery. Also, batteries simply aren’t as efficient in extreme weather (especially if they lack pack heating and/or cooling).
.

And I’ve seen much the same in winter EV driving — the 100-mile car becomes the 60-mile (at best) car. A Volt I drove during a New England winter went 28 miles before switching to the gas engine, which isn’t bad — Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars I drove did much worse under frigid conditions. One December, I got 34 miles from an i-MiEV that’s rated at 62. Mitsubishi has warned i-MiEV drivers not to use the heater because it will cut the range in half; a refreshed 2016 model may improve that dilemma.
. 
I like heat in the winter (and air conditioning in the summer), which is one reason my results are worse than average. Patrick Wang, a San Francisco Volt owner, told me that 40-degree weather reduced his range modestly to 34 miles, and he compensates by pre-warming the car while it’s plugged in at home, then setting the heater to low.

EST’s research suggests that that in a city with a moderate climate, such as San Francisco, the median range for a Nissan Leaf battery electric is around 76 miles, and it’s above 70 miles more than 99 percent of the time. In a super-hot city like Phoenix, it can drop to 49 miles on the worst day of the year, while in super-cold Rochester, Minnesota, a 36 percent range drop was observed. Even within a big state like California, there can be energy-consumption-per-mile variations of 18 percent because of differences in weather.

Range (in all weather) is king, and that’s why the Tesla Model S’ 265 miles is so prized. And it’s also why the Volt’s 2016 improvement is so welcome.... 

Jeremy Michalek of Carnegie Mellon University, co-author of the EST study, told me, “Climate is one extra factor that electric car buyers should consider depending on where they live....

Michalek also points out that Californians’ environmental equation is also bettered by the fact that the state gets most of its electricity from clean sources. A Union of Concerned Scientists report found, encouragingly, that 60 percent of the U.S. population lives in regions where, all factors considered, the battery electrics emit fewer greenhouse gases than a Toyota Prius hybrid. Climate Central also investigated, concluding that electric cars are the best option for the climate in 16 states..

But these are moving targets. The electric grid is getting cleaner, and as it does the EV’s environmental scorecard improves in most of the country." via Junk Science, via Steven Goddard

.

================================== 
..

Linked in above article:

.

2/24/15, "Carnegie Mellon Study Shows Electric Vehicle Range and Emissions Vary With Climate," cmu.edu, Tara Moore
.

============
.

8/8/13, "A Roadmap to Climate-Friendly Cars: 2013," Climate Central

 

.

Battle to keep Hudson River open amid big freeze, three of five Great Lakes frozen over

Hudson River image caption: "Frozen over: The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sturgeon Bay breaks ice in the shipping channel on the Hudson River in Catskill, New York, on Friday. With the prolonged cold winter weather, that is set to continue into March, the Coast Guard has been busy clearing shipping lanes," AP

"Three of the five Great Lakes had completely frozen over by Thursday." Image caption, Lake Michigan, Xinhua

2/27/15, "Battle to keep the Hudson open: Ice breakers sent out in New York big freeze as hundreds flock to see ice caves opened by perfect winter conditions," UK Daily Mail, Wills Robinson 

====================

Ed. note: The white panel beginning at the top of this post is vandalism by my longtime hackers. They don't like free speech. 

.

Exploring ice caves on Lake Superior, 3 of 5 Great Lakes are completely frozen over

Image caption: "Edward Mitchell, front, of Detroit, and James Kuhn, of Seattle, explore an ice cave at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Lake Superior," AP

"Three of the five Great Lakes had completely frozen over by Thursday." Image caption, Lake Michigan, Xinhua

2/27/15, "Battle to keep the Hudson open: Ice breakers sent out in New York big freeze as hundreds flock to see ice caves opened by perfect winter conditions," UK Daily Mail, Wills Robinson 

 .

China air pollution strategies such as coal scrubbing may be exacerbating CO2 emissions-Paulson Institute

2/26/15, "The Two-fer That Isn’t: Why Air Pollution and Carbon Reductions in China Don’t Overlap as Much as You Think," paulsoninstitute.org

"A new Paulson Institute paper argues that China should tackle air pollution and climate change at the same time, for the sake of economic efficiency—and the health of the planet. In “Double Impact: Why China Needs Coordinated Air Quality and Climate Strategies,” MIT’s Valerie Karplus makes these points:

1. Current air pollution strategies lead to perverse results. Because it’s cheaper to use coal scrubbers (pollution control devices that remove sulfur dioxides) at coal-fired plants than it is to switch over to renewable fuels, there is little incentive to stop using coal.
2. Coal scrubbing does next to nothing to reduce CO2 emissions. In fact, air pollution controls—such as scrubbers—actually may be exacerbating climate issues resulting from carbon emissions.
3. Cleanup equipment use could actually increase CO2 emissions. If scrubber equipment is powered by coal-based energy, then it could increase CO2 emissions even as air quality improves. Such air pollution mitigation would lock in continued reliance on a carbon-intensive fuel. 
4. A price on carbon emissions would incentivize a reduction in coal use. It will also reduce the extent of end-of-pipe air pollution controls needed to achieve air quality goals.
5. Putting a price on carbon emissions would help China achieve its climate goals. An emissions trading system or tax would be the best way to translate China’s climate pledge into clear, price-based incentives to decarbonize the economy through 2030 and beyond."

.
=================================

2/25/15, "Double Impact: Why China Needs Coordinated Air Quality and Climate Strategies," by Valerie J. Karplus, paulsoninstitute.org 
 
"MIT's Valerie Karplus makes the case for establishing a national CO₂ price in China as soon as possible."

"Written by Valerie Karplus, an Assistant Professor in the Global Economics and Management Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Director of the MIT-Tsinghua China Energy and Climate Project, this paper examines China’s current approach to tackling air pollution and carbon mitigation nationally and argues that more incentives are needed if China hopes to meet its “peak carbon” goal by 2030.

The urgency with which Beijing is tackling air pollution is certainly positive, and such actions will lead to concomitant benefits in curtailing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, to a certain extent. But Karplus argues that it would be a mistake to view the current initiatives on air pollution, which are primarily aimed at scrubbing coal-related pollutants or reducing coal use, as perfectly aligned with carbon reduction.

This is not the case, according to Karplus. Air pollution reduction is only partly aligned with CO2 reduction, and vice versa. In addition to air pollution efforts, effective co-control requires a more significant step: a meaningful price on carbon. This is especially so if Beijing is to realize its 2030 pledge. Put another way, air pollution control efforts, while essential, will only take China part of the way toward its stated carbon reduction goals.

One major reason is because while low-cost solutions for air pollution and carbon reduction can overlap, the reality is that co-benefits run out after low-cost opportunities to reduce or displace the fuels responsible for both carbon and air pollution emissions—mostly coal in China’s case—are exhausted. In other words, co-benefits diminish over time as greater reductions are needed, according to Karplus."

"Read English version (PDF, 1 MB)

Read Chinese version (PDF, 2 MB)"
.

=====================
.

"About The Paulson Institute"

"The Paulson Institute is an independent, non-partisan center located at the University of Chicago.

Our work is grounded in the principle that today’s most pressing economic and environmental challenges can be solved only if the United States and China work in complementary ways.

With offices in the United States and China, and partners around the globe, we take a “think and do” approach.  Our mission is to advance global environmental protection and sustainable economic growth in the United States and China, while fostering broader understanding between the two countries.

The Institute was founded in 2011 by Henry M. Paulson, Jr., the 74th Secretary of the Treasury and former chief executive of Goldman Sachs to promote economic growth and environmental preservation in both countries through programs, advocacy and research."

.

US nominates Dr. Chris Field for UN IPCC chair to replace Rajendra Pachauri

2/27/15, "Nomination of Dr. Chris Field as Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)," US Department of State, Office of the Spokesperson

"The United States is pleased to announce the nomination of Dr. Chris Field to serve as chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading scientific body for the assessment of climate change. Dr. Field, a director at the Carnegie Institution for Science and professor at Stanford University, has served as co-chair of the IPCC’s Working Group II since 2008, and has delivered two major assessments during this term. His research publications have garnered more than 50,000 citations and span the subject area of all three IPCC working groups (physical science, impacts and adaptation, and mitigation). He is the recipient of a number of scientific honors including most recently the Roger Revelle Medal from the American Geophysical Union.
..

The IPCC was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 1988 to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. Its most recent assessment on climate change was finalized in 2014. The IPCC is open to all member countries of the UN and WMO. Currently 195 countries are members of the IPCC (complete list available at: www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ipcc-principles/ipcc-countries.pdf). The election for IPCC chair will take place during the 42^nd session of the IPCC from October 6-10, 2015."

via Junk Science








.

Scientists find they were off by 2000 years, wheat existed in UK 8000 years ago rather than 6000 years earlier thought, scientist said new finding never dreamed possible, peer reviewed study in Science-BBC

"These were sophisticated people with technologies thousands of years more advanced than previously recognised."
 
2/16/15, "Scientists find evidence of wheat in UK 8,000 years ago," BBC, Helen Briggs

"Wheat was present in Britain 8,000 years ago, according to new archaeological evidence. Fragments of wheat DNA recovered from an ancient peat bog suggests the grain was traded or exchanged long before it was grown by the first British farmers.

The research, published in Science, suggests there was a sophisticated network of cultural links across Europe.

The grain was found at what is now a submerged cliff off the Isle of Wight. 

Farming of plants and animals first appeared in the Near East, with the technology spreading along two main routes into Europe. The accepted date of arrival on the British mainland is around 6,000 years ago, as ancient hunter gatherers began to grow crops such as wheat and barley.

The DNA of the wheat - known as einkorn - was collected from sediment that was once a peat bog next to a river. 

Scientists think traders arrived in Britain with the wheat, perhaps via land bridges that connected the south east coast of Britain to the European mainland, where they encountered a less advanced hunter gatherer society.

The wheat may have been made into flour to supplement the diet, but a search for pollen and other clues revealed no signs that the crop was grown in Britain until much later.

Cultural connection
 
Dr Robin Allaby of the University of Warwick, who led the research, said 8,000 years ago the people of mainland Britain were leading a hunter-gatherer existence, while at the same time farming was gradually spreading across Europe. 

"Common throughout neolithic Southern Europe, einkorn is not found elsewhere in Britain until 2,000 years after the samples found at Bouldnor Cliff," he said. 

"For the einkorn to have reached this site there needs to have been contact between mesolithic [the culture between paleolithic and neolithic] Britons and neolithic farmers far across Europe. 

"The land bridges provide a plausible facilitation of this contact. As such, far from being insular, mesolithic Britain was culturally and possibly physically connected to Europe."

The research shows that scientists can analyse genetic material preserved within the sediments of the landscapes stretching between Britain and Europe in prehistoric times. 

Co-researcher Prof Vincent Gaffney, of the University of Bradford, said the find marked a new chapter in British and European history. 

"It now seems likely that the hunter-gather societies of Britain, far from being isolated were part of extensive social networks that traded or exchanged exotic foodstuffs across much of Europe," he said.
 
Tangible link
 
And Garry Momber of the Maritime Archaeology Trust, which collected the samples from the site, said work in the Solent had opened up an understanding of the UK's formative years in a way that he never dreamed possible. 

"The material remains left behind by the people that occupied Britain as it was finally becoming an island 8,000 years ago, show that these were sophisticated people with technologies thousands of years more advanced than previously recognised.

"The DNA evidence corroborates the archaeological evidence and demonstrates a tangible link with the continent that appears to have become severed when Britain became an island.""

====================

2/27/15, "Sedimentary DNA from a submerged site reveals wheat in the British Isles 8000 years ago," Science

1. Oliver Smith¹,
2. Garry Momber²,
3. Richard Bates³,
4. Paul Garwood⁴,
5. Simon Fitch⁵,
6. Mark Pallen⁶,*,
7. Vincent Gaffney⁷,*,
8. Robin G. Allaby¹,*,†

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Even elected Republicans who say 'I'm not a scientist' can understand these charts showing electricity consumption trends

"Electricity consumption," Indexmundi, 2000-2012:













Above, United States. Added, US population 1990-2013 increased 26%.while US CO2 1990-2013 only increased 6% (p. 17). US leads world in CO2 reduction since 2006.

Above, China

Above, India

Above, Brazil

Above, Saudi Arabia

Above, EU

Above, UK

Above, Germany



===================================

US population increased 26% 1990-2013 while its CO2 only increased 6% in that time, per EU Commission Report, Dec. 2014, global CO2 emissions trends: 

Dec. 2014, "Trends in global CO2 emissions 2014 Report," PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, EU Commission Joint Research Centre

US population since 1990: +26%
.  
US CO2 since 1990: +6%
.
p. 17, "United States 2.2.2
.
"When comparing long term trends, we note that while the United States saw a relatively high annual population increase 26% since 1990, its CO2 emissions increased by 6% in this period (for more details see Section 2.3)"

====================================

4/21/2012, “Why [CO2] Emissions Are Declining in the U.S. But Not in Europe,” by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, newgeography.com

“As we note below in a new article for Yale360, a funny thing happened: U.S. emissions started going down in 2005 and are expected to decline further over the next decade.”


=====================================

US Energy CO2 emissions plunge, heading to 1991 levels. "Truly astonishing!"

7/2/2012, "Shale Gas Causes First Quarter 2012 US Carbon Emissions To Plummet Again," JohnHanger.blogspot.com
 

7/2/2012, “CO2 Emissions Will Likely Fall This Year to 1991 Levels,” Carpe Diem, Mark J. Perry. From John Hanger's blog:

.

 

"The bottom line is that America's carbon emissions may drop back close to 1990 levels this year. That result would have been thought impossible, even at the end of 2011.

But the shale gas revolution makes a reality many things recently thought impossible.
.

It was thought impossible to slash carbon US carbon emissions back to 1990 levels by 2012.  It was thought impossible to massively, quickly cut carbon emissions and, at the same time, have lower energy bills.

Shale gas production has slashed carbon emissions and saved consumers more than $100 billion per year.  Truly astonishing!"

"America's carbon emissions may drop back close to 1990 levels this year. That result would have been thought impossible, even at the end of 2011.
But the shale gas revolution makes a reality many things recently thought impossible.  It was thought impossible to slash carbon US carbon emissions back to 1990 levels by 2012.  It was thought impossible to massively, quickly cut carbon emissions and, at the same time, have lower energy bills.
Shale gas production has slashed carbon emissions and saved consumers more than $100 billion per year.  Truly astonishing!" - See more at: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-shockingly-good-news-from-shale.html#sthash.4P9KcdkI.dpuf

US EIA data. Chart from Carpe Diem, 7/2/2012. EIA is a division of the US Dept. of Energy

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=========================
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6/4/12, “Climate change stunner: USA leads world in CO2 cuts since 2006,” Vancouver Observer, Saxifrage



  
“Not only that, but as my top chart shows, US CO2 emissions are falling even faster than what President Obama pledged in the global Copenhagen Accord....Here is the biggest shocker of all: the average American's CO2 emissions are down to levels not seen since 1964 -- over half a century ago.... It is exactly America's historical role of biggest and dirtiest that makes their sharp decline in CO2 pollution so noteworthy and potentially game changing at the global level."...
... 

======================================
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Why so little talk about plunging US CO2? Left wing blog Grist says lower CO2 is seen as a negative for Obama since its achievement can be linked to economic depression, harsh EPA regulations, and fracking:
.
7/17/12, "U.S. leads the world in cutting CO2 emissions — so why aren’t we talking about it?" Grist, David Roberts

"Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. is making progress on climate change.

We have cut our carbon emissions more than any other country in the world in recent years — 7.7 percent since 2006. U.S. emissions fell 1.9 percent last year and are projected to fall 1.9 percent again this year...

Why isn’t this extraordinary story a bigger deal in U.S. politics? You’d think Obama would be boasting about it! Turns out, though, it’s a little awkward for him, since several of the drivers responsible are things for which he can’t (or might not want to) take credit.

First off there’s the Great Recession, which flattened electricity demand in 2008. It has never recovered....

For obvious reasons, boasting about the environmental benefits of the recession is not something Obama’s eager to do.


The second big driver is the glut of cheap natural gas...This is absolutely crushing coal, the biggest source of CO2 in the electric sector:

The share of U.S. electricity that comes from coal is forecast to fall below 40% for the year, its lowest level since World War II. Four years ago, it was 50%. By the end of this decade, it is likely to be near 30%....

In April, coal and natural gas both contributed 32 percent to the U.S. electricity mix — equal for the first time since EIA started collecting data in the ’70s. This is, as Alexis Madrigal emphasizes, an extraordinary shift, unprecedented in the history of the U.S. electrical system....

Fracking’s potential environmental and health impacts has quickly made it a flash point with his environmental base (and his Hollywood base), so it’s at the very least a fraught subject.

Awkward: Kenyan socialist EPA sharia tyranny

A less significant driver of the switch from coal to natural gas is the EPA’s long overdue rollout of new or tightened clean-air rules on mercury, SO2 and NOx, and CO2. Those rules may do more work later on down the line when/if natural gas prices rise again, but for now the best analysis [PDF] shows that natural gas is doing most of the work killing coal. Nonetheless, EPA regs have proven a source of potent right-wing attacks on Obama and he’s probably not eager to call undue attention to them.

Thus: silence in the political world...

There’s more to this story than natural gas and recession.

First, it isn’t just natural gas and EPA taking coal out — it’s the kick-ass anti-coal movement! Fighting tooth-and-nail, plant-by-plant, it has blocked new construction and shut down over 100 existing plants."...

=====================

Following link from above Grist article:

6/12/2012, "U.S. coal use falling fast as utilities switch to gas," AP via USA Today, Jonathan Fahey.

================================

IndexMundi: "Definition of Electricity - consumption: This entry consists of total electricity generated annually plus imports and minus exports, expressed in kilowatt-hours. The discrepancy between the amount of electricity generated and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is accounted for as loss in transmission and distribution."

IndexMundi Team



via Grist.





.

Bob Ward, fellow traveler of Rep. Raul Grijalva, says congressman is wrong about Roger Pielke, Jr.

2/24/15,  Bob Ward twitter


.

Missouri judge rules state membership in Common Core testing company illegal, Missouri had agreed to pay yearly dues of $4.3 million to Common Core testing co.

2/25/15, "Missouri judge rules pact with Common Core testing 'illegal'," AP via kspr.com, Jefferson City, Mo.
.. 
"A Missouri judge says the state's membership to a testing company aligned with the national Common Core education standards is illegal and that it shouldn't pay fees to be part of the group.

Cole County Circuit judge Daniel Green ruled Tuesday that the state's partnership with the Common Core testing company is an "illegal interstate compact not authorized by the U.S. Congress."

The attorney general's office represents the state and is reviewing the ruling. Missouri's education department budgeted about $4.3 million for member dues this fiscal year.
. .
The Common Core education standards and tests aligned with them have been a magnet for critics, including the three plaintiffs in the court case ruled on Tuesday."  
. 

============================ 

NextGen science standards seeks to be "consensus model" of US: 

1/28/15, "Kansas, Missouri see temporary truce over Common Core standards," Kansas City Star, Joe Robertson
.. 
"The state also convened work groups on science standards and history and social studies standards — not part of Common Core, but with their own ideological divides.
.. 
The science groups are working with a menu of standards models that includes the Next Generation Science Standards, which carry a similar mission as Common Core to build a consensus model between states.
.. 
Airick Leonard West, a Kansas City school board member serving on the elementary science work group, is encouraged by what he’s seeing. “Partisanship and ideology have taken a backseat to the more pressing concerns of student preparation and teacher support,” West said. The work is carrying on with “urgency” and “professionalism,” he said."...
.
===============================
.
2/25/15, "Judge Takes a Swipe at Common Core," The Blaze, Fred Lucas
... 
"The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers developed the controversial Common Core education standards. The U.S. Department of Education has tied federal grants to states with adopting Common Core, which critics say makes it a de facto federal program. More than 40 states adopted the standards, but three states have outright repealed it, while numerous others are reviewing or rolling back certain aspects of the standards. .  
...

Two private testing companies are involved in administering the exams, Smarter Balance and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers."







.

Science and media on beach in Bonaire paid for by multi-billion dollar Pew Charitable Trusts to steer US policy. Pew-selected media taught scientists to sell views to Science, Nature, masses. Coaches included NY Times, Economist, Time, US News. Pew fellow Lubchenco long urged fellow scientists to be global warming activists-Gloucester Times, June 2010 article

6/28/2010, "Getting Help from the Press," Gloucester Times, Nancy Gaines


"For five days, esteemed scientists and elite journalists gathered on Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles, east of Aruba, to loll on the island's fine beaches, sip cocktails at the Tipsy Seagull and perhaps marvel at the flamingoes for which Bonaire is famous.

The official purpose of the October 2002 gathering of the

• Pew Charitable Trusts marine fellows was to train the scientists in the ways of the media, the better
• to market their message.

"Learn how to navigate the stormy waters of the media," read the description of one Bonaire workshop. "Packaging your message is a key to success — whether talking to the media,

• submitting a paper to Science or Nature (magazine), writing a grant proposal, or writing an op-ed for your local paper."

But it wasn't all business. The workshops were followed by "barside discussions" as the sun-soaked setting

• blurred the line that usually separates reporters and those they cover. So, too, did it blur the line between trainers and trainees.

The scientists being trained on Bonaire had a ready pool of journalists on which to practice what they were learning about working the media. The list of reporters invited to Bonaire was a who's who of science journalism: Cornelia Dean of the New York Times, Natasha Loder of the Economist, Charles Alexander of Time magazine and Tom Hayden of U.S. News and World Report, among others. 

Dean (NY Times) told the Gloucester Daily Times her trip to Bonaire was paid for by Pew, the powerful nonprofit that uses its multi-billion-dollar endowment to steer public policy on the environment and other issues. 
.
While the New York Times has strict standards against junkets, Dean said, an exception is made for "teaching," and that's what she was doing in Bonaire.
.
"My goal was to help scientists to speak more clearly to the public," she said.  
.
The scientists mingling with the journalists on Bonaire included beneficiaries of Pew money, like Steve Palumbi, Elliot Norse and Jeremy Jackson. Another notable scientist on Bonaire was Daniel Pauly, the author last year of "Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish," and a professor whose fisheries center at the University of British Columbia has received some $15 million from Pew.

Pauly is a longtime prophet of doom for commercial fishing. In a 1998 article he co-authored for Science magazine, Pauly predicted that rapacious commercial fishermen would work their way down the marine food chain — eliminating predator fish such as tuna and swordfish, then setting their nets for the bait those fish feed on. In the end, nothing would be left on the menu but "jellyfish and plankton soup."

The Bonaire conclave is just one example of the symbiotic relationship that has developed between environmental advocates and scientists and some of the big-media journalists who cover them.

The journalists are wined and dined by the advocates

• and hired to train the scientists to use the media to advance their message.

The journalists, in turn, call on those same scientists as sources when writing about the advocates and their agenda.

• In June 2003, eight months after Bonaire, Tom Hayden warned of the cataclysmic consequences of overfishing in a cover story for U.S. News and World Report,

The story, "Fished Out," quoted 13 different concerned scientists and citizens coming to the same awful conclusion: Jellyfish might one day be fishermen's only catch.

Although Hayden was virtually unknown in commercial fishing circles,

• his story had the potential to influence the American public's view of the fishing industry.

Hayden did not mention to his readers that, of the 14 sources he quoted for the article, 13 received their funding directly or indirectly from Pew, as Pew fellows or the recipients of Pew grants. The 14th was a restaurant chef.

• Hayden's Pew-connected sources included Pauly, the godfather of the jellyfish scenario, and Jeremy Jackson, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography ecologist.

Both Pauly and Jackson were on Bonaire with Hayden, who did not return several messages for comment on this story.

• In fact, Jackson was on the agenda to go snorkeling with Hayden. Hayden's U.S. News and World Report cover story quoted Jackson on jellyfish:

"Jellyfish have become a commercial fishery in many places," Jackson says, "because that's all that's left. That and the bacteria."

• Hayden also quoted Jane Lubchenco, now head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

'Frame their messages'

Lubchenco, a Pew fellow and mentor of many other Pew fellows, wasn't on Bonaire. But she appeared in a PBS-produced film shown at the event titled "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets," another cautionary tale of overfishing, funded in part by Pew.

• Lubchenco for years has urged her fellow scientists to become activists in the debate over issues like global warming and overfishing and

• to help shape public policy through the media.

In 1997, as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Lubchenco called on fellow scientists to

• join her in a new "social contract."

Scientists must promote their ideas to politicians and the public in order to create a world that is "ecologically sound, economically feasible and socially just," she argued.

• A year after the speech, Lubchenco founded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program to advance her activist vision.

The program trains chosen scientists in "talking points" to use with the media and other nonscientific audiences, according to its website. Through "role playing and small group interactive exercises,"

• the scientists learn how to develop "specific, appropriate messages to stakeholders."

Trainers hired to work with Aldo Leopold fellows have included

• reporters for the New York Times, the Washington Post and National Public Radio, as well as leaders of environmental groups and
• White House and
• congressional staff members.

Lubchenco also helped organize two groups with a similar mission, SeaWeb and the Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea — COMPASS.

• Lead trainer for all three advocacy groups — Aldo Leopold, SeaWeb and COMPASS — is Nancy Baron, a zoologist and former science writer.

Baron has boasted to colleagues about her success in manipulating the media message — and the media.

• In a 2005 e-mail — a copy of which has been obtained by the Times — she cited an article in The New York Times, and wrote:

• "We worked with these scientists to help them frame their messages and talk about their study so it resonates with the wider public. Note their quotes in particular which are not just off the top of their heads ..."

In 2008, referring to a story on damage to the ocean ecosystem written by Andrew Revkin for the Science Times section of The New York Times, Baron wrote: "This Science Times piece came out of AAAS (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) and our infamous marine mixer."

• The infamous mixer was a cocktail party hosted by COMPASS for members of the Academy and the press.

The networking that links activists and journalists was fully on display in the Washington Post story that broke the news of President-elect Obama's decision to nominate

• Lubchenco as head of NOAA in December 2008.

The story was written by the Post's environmental writer, Juliet Eilperin, who has been both a panelist and participant in COMPASS events.

• Eilperin cited "several sources" for the scoop and quoted one in praise of Lubchenco: Andrew Rosenberg.

The story did not mention that Rosenberg is an adviser to both Pew and COMPASS and has ties to Lubchenco that date to when she was a professor and he a grad student at Oregon State University. He lists Lubchenco as a reference on his resume.

• Rosenberg is also a former high-ranking NOAA official who

• now runs an environmental consulting company that has obtained

• more than $12 million in NOAA contracts in the past decade.

Last fall, Lubchenco made him a White House consultant on ocean policy."

Image above, Bonaire Beach from etraveltrips.com 

.