It was a full house at the Olympia Center for the City of Olympia and Olympia Climate Action sponsored Imagine Olympia comprehensive planning event.

Andy Haub presented information about the future prospects for downtown Olympia in regard to climate change caused sea level rise. And Keith Stahley presented information about the comprehensive planning process, and about how citizens who care about climate change and sea level rise in relation to the future of Olympia can make sure that considerations about sea level rise are made part of the updated Comprehensive Plan.

Andy explained how the City is paying attention to information from the UW Climate Impacts Group, which indicates, first and foremost, that sea level rise is not a phenomenon of the future, but instead that sea level rise is actually a present day reality. During high tide events, water can already be seen rising up through some storm drains in low lying areas.

A statewide assessment put out by the UW group says that "Adaption is necessary because impacts will be large." So there is a real urgency to figure out what to do about it now. The other aspect of this is that no one knows, even the most qualified expert climatologists/oceanologists, when the waters will rise high enough to cause serious problems, nor how high the waters will rise.

From Olympia Climate Action: Imagine Olympia, Climate 2030

Time: Monday, January 11, 2010 from 7pm to 9pm
Location: Olympia Center
Street: 222 Columbia St. NW
City/Town: Downtown Olympia
Organized By: Olympia Climate Action, and
City of Olympia: Imagine Olympia

SEA LEVEL RISE: WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?
Andy Haub, City of Olympia, Public Utilities

An overview of recently completed work on the various scenarios and potential impacts of sea level rise on downtown Olympia, as well as the projected effects of climate disruption throughout the state.

PUTTING the CLIMATE in the COMP PLAN
Keith Staley, City of Olympia, Planning Department

An opportunity to have a meaningful and informed dialogue with the City and discuss the changes needed in the Comprehensive Plan to address the anticipated impacts of climate disruption.

The Comprehensive Plan will be the vehicle that ultimately determines what gets attention and what doesn't over the next 20 years. If we take the time to identify climate change as being significant, then it will get addressed through the comp plan. If we don’t . . .

Sponsors:
Olympia Climate Action
City of Olympia: Imagine Olympia

Bring your own mug to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea along with other refreshments.

Monday, January 4, 2010

About 100 people gathered at Percival Landing in Downtown Olympia, Washington to witness one of the year's highest high tides.

Many areas of Downtown Olympia are very close to sea-level during high tides. People are concerned that with rising sea-levels, flooding may become a regular part of living downtown.

There were short speeches by Oly City Council Members (and members-elect), Thurston Co. Commissioner Karen Valenzuela, as well as a statement by Spencer Reeder, who is the Chair of, and Department of Ecology representative to, the State Climate Change Impact Response Committee. There were reporters from The Olympian, and there was even a TV reporter with a video camera (from King 5.) Apparently, there will be coverage of the event on the 5 o'clock news report. Here's a link to an early story from The Olympian.

I have a few photos. I saw a lot of people with cameras, so I hope to see some more photos circulating.

The tide was very high. It was still a good foot, or foot and a half, from the top of the Percival Landing boardwalk - although the edge of the Oysterhouse parking lot was within inches of the water's high tide.

The event was sponsored by Olympia Climate Action.

I'll update this post with links to more reports as they become available.

• High Tide Slideshow from Darkwater Kate

• Here's a link to the K5 story: Climate group greets high tide

• More photos from forever young: HighTide10

• Report by g. johnson posted to Portland Indymedia: Olympia’s Highest Tide: Sea-Level Rise Will Impact Downtown

• From Janine Gates: Highest Tide in Olympia Marks Sea-Level Rise Concerns and Local Action

• Story from John Dodge, The Olympian: 'Noise' about climate change
Downtown: Group uses high tide to illustrate concerns about rising sea levels

photos below the fold (and after the photos I have some personal thoughts about climate change, and tides, and the planet - to share):

Save the Date! On Monday, January 4, 2010, there will be an event at at Percival Landing (near The Kiss statue) to mark what is predicted to be one of the year's highest tides.

There will be speakers, including from the Olympia City Council and the Thurston County Commission.

Hope to see you there!

Date and Time: Monday, January 4, 2010, starting at 8:15 AM

Location: Percival Landing, intersection of 4th Avenue and Water Street, near The Kiss statue

More information about this event coming soon.

Ongoing coverage from Democracy Now! of the climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark:

link to an mp3 of the show: Democracy Now! from Copenhagen, Monday, December 14, 2009

Amy Goodman is broadcasting Democracy Now from Copenhagen, and has some great coverage of the Climate Conference. It's really great. Important news and perspective that you probably won't get from the mainstream press...

Here's a striking excerpt from today's program. The Delegate from Sudan:

“This Text Is an Extremely Dangerous Document for Developing Countries”: G77 Chief Condemns Secret US-Danish Climate Deal

LUMUMBA STANISLAUS DI-APING: …is that this text, the Danish text, is an extremely dangerous document for developing countries. It is a total violation of the principles of transparency and openness. It is a rejection of the fact that the UNFCCC is the only legitimate forum for conducting negotiations by parties to the convention. And in terms of substance, it is a fundamental rejection and reworking of the [UNFCCC] balance of obligations between developing and developed countries.

Not only that, it’s our humble view it’s equally an insult to the elected president of COP15. This text comes from the office of the Prime Minister of Denmark. It’s overreaching. The strategic goal is to destroy the balance of obligations between developing and developed, industrialized Western countries. And this is done by and with a zealous rejection of the notion of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. And further, it denies the fact that developed countries have a historical responsibility for damaging the atmospheric space, which is something started and has been continuing for the last—over last 200 years.

LNG stands for liquid natural gas.

Here's a video from October 2008 of a No LNG rally at the State Capitol in Olympia, Washington.

A couple articles to share relating the problem of human caused environmental degradation. One is from The Guardian about James Hansen's opposition to cap and trade. Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He opposes cap and trade, and instead favors a more simple approach of taxing the carbon economy.

The second article is about how some researchers are expecting climate change to have ever more serious impact on peoples' mental health (as if it isn't already having serious impacts.)

Here are excerpts and links:

On Saturday, many people gathered to march downtown Olympia to mark the high tide line given global warming induced predicted sea-level rise.

Janine Gates has an article about the day's events posted here: Think Global, Act Local: Climate Action Activities in the South Sound

Laura Killian has a photo set:

Climate Action Day, Olympia, Washington by Laura Killian

There are also photos posted at The Olympiun: Photos

Last Friday an imposter version parody of The Olympian daily newspaper was published. The paper was called The Olympiun. The paper was published in conjunction with a day of climate action to draw attention to the need to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. Current levels of greenhouse gasses are causing global warming, and a variety of negative impacts, including a dramatically increased rate of extinctions that are attributable to human activities. When compared to the background rate of extinctions that have occur due to natural events throughout the fossil record, the present day rate is 100 to 1,000 times higher (ref: Wikipedia article on extinction). For example, another negative consequence of higher atmospheric levels of carbon is the acidification of marine environments, where a broad variety of organisms called calcifiers (from corals to shellfish, and other crustaceans) are presently suffering damages and extinctions - and are threatened with increasingly more so (ref: Ecosystems and Biodiversity - Corals and Other Marine Calcifiers | Climate Change - Health and Environmental Effects | U.S. EPA).

So check it out, it's available on a local newsstand near you, or you can visit on the Internet:
The Olympiun