Author Archives: globaloceanhealth
Inside Climate News: An Indigenous Group’s Objection to Geoengineering Spurs a Debate About Social Justice in Climate Science
The Sámi people of Northern Sweden say blocking out the sun with reflective particles to cool the earth is the kind of thinking that produced the climate crisis in the first place.
By Haley Dunleavy | July 7, 2021
Navigating Potential Hype and Opportunity in Governing Marine Carbon Removal
Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fclim.2021.664456/full
Published: 09 June 2021.
Edited by: James Palmer, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Reviewed by: Phillip Williamson, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom
Jesse L. Reynolds, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Farewell, Terry Williams: friend, mentor, board member
Terry Williams died on July 19. I will miss him, as will many others who loved and learned from this man.
I first met Terry Williams in 1982. He became a lifelong mentor, colleague, friend and (as he was for thousands) an inspiration. At the time, I was a rookie journalist covering efforts throughout Salmon Country to overcome pollution and degradation of watersheds and estuaries, nature’s salmon nurseries. Billy Frank Jr., the fiery, generous chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, introduced me to the Tulalip tribal fisheries leader when I asked him who was blazing a trail to protect salmon habitat.
Terry came of age in a movement founded on a series of seemingly narrow tribal victories in federal courts, which affirmed tribes long-trampled claims: under 19th Century treaties, they retained fishing rights which must be restored. Well, exactly who can sign a treaty? Only a sovereign government. Equipped with recognized treaty rights, tribes in the Pacific Northwest uplifted themselves. Terry rose to prominence as a humble, patient guide to his own and other tribes in the transformative labor of rebuilding their governments, reclaiming their long-lost powers to regulate fisheries and other resources, recruiting formidable technical staff, and successfully pressing the United Nations to recognize and protect indigenous rights under international law—even securing intellectual rights for traditional knowledge.
Terry was always self-effacing, but in such a movement his remarkable 360o intellect was far too valuable to waste. Tribal leaders insisted that he step up (though reluctantly at first) from the modest job of tribal cop to lead Tulalip’s nascent fisheries department. His responsibilities grew over time. For decades he led the wide-ranging Tulalip Office of Fisheries and Treaty Rights, ranging from Tulalip’s home watershed—the Snohomish River—to Washington DC and Geneva. When President Clinton tapped Terry to build the EPA’s Indian Office, he earned the respect and admiration of tribal leaders across the country, along with federal agency executives and Congressional leaders. Even old adversaries in industry came to admire and trust him, understanding that he was a trustworthy champion of tribes’ newly-regained treaty authorities to manage and protect the lands and waters that feed us all.
At Global Ocean Health, Terry became a close partner in our work starting in 2011, when he embraced our proposal to create Washington’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Ocean Acidification. Terry joined with Bill Dewey of Taylor Shellfish to bring that proposal to Washington Gov. Gregoire, and within weeks we were working with the governor’s staff to convene the panel, kicking off a wave of similar efforts by coastal states and nations to tackle ocean acidification. Terry soon roped us in to help Tulalip Tribes build its forward-leaning climate and habitat work. At Terry’s suggestion, in 2018 the tribe commissioned us to help tribes statewide shape a cap-and-invest carbon pricing policy that could work for Indian Country as well as the rest of the state. The first version died under a $32 million blitz from the oil industry, but in 2021 Terry lived to see most of this policy become law with the passage of Washington’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA)—notably this time with support from BP, the oil company that led the opposition in 2018. The CCA has been hailed as the nation’s most ambitious climate policy.
A few years ago Terry joined the board of the National Fisheries Conservation Center, participating wholeheartedly in our Global Ocean Health program. In the final year of his life he helped to launch what is now our largest initiative, Building Tribal Leadership in Carbon Removal.
On a personal note, losing Terry landed like the fall of the tallest tree in an ancient forest. Writing this farewell has been like trying to lift that tree, a weight almost impossible to bear or articulate. Yet we all knew this time would come. For many years Terry’s faltering health was a subject of anxious speculation among his friends, family and colleagues. Terry endured diabetes, heart failure, PTSD, and lingering effects of Agent Orange, surviving multiple strokes and heart attacks. A man of implacable faith and gratitude, he never complained, but his last years were wracked. Anyone who knew him well could see it.
A few years ago at a meeting in Seattle, I watched Terry give a spectacularly clear talk to colleagues about a complex nest of regulatory loopholes that were quietly eroding protected fish and wildlife habitats. While he was speaking, he suffered a mild stroke. He slumped slightly, nodded off for a moment, then regained his pace and, after a few misplaced words, finished his talk, wrapping up with utter lucidity. It was late in the day, the meeting ended, and everyone else gathered their notes, thanked him and went home. I sat with Terry while he looked around the room, regaining his bearings. “I think I can stand up,” he said. He wobbled to his feet, bracing himself on the table, and sat back down. “I need to get home,” he said. “I think I’m okay to drive.” He held up his hands to form a frame in front of his face. “When I look side to side, I can see this much, but everything else is dark.” I shook my head and told him to hand me his car keys. “We’re going to the hospital, Terry. You just had a stroke.” He made no argument. Two weeks later, the doctors let him out again. I picked him up at the hospital door, where a gaggle of doctors surrounded him, offering their blessings. They had enjoyed listening to his heartfelt teachings about the work of restoring our living home. As Terry gingerly lowered himself into the car, one of the doctors called out, “Stay healthy, Terry. The world needs you.”
Wherever Terry is today, the world still needs him. We are incredibly fortunate that Terry’s biographer, Aniko Bahr, is completing the book that he meant to leave behind for a world that must now carry on his work. Aniko is a neighbor and dear friend of the Williams family at Tulalip, and her obituary for Terry follows. It was Terry’s family who named Global Ocean Health to receive memorial contributions in his honor. As always, we are in their debt.
—Brad Warren
Photo: Terry speaking at our memorial for Julia Sanders and Thane Tienson in June 2022
HE’S ONE OF THE ANCESTORS NOW
Terrance Rollo Williams left this world at age 74 on July 19th, 2022. He died peacefully in his sleep with loving family members nearby, just days after he and his wife Suzanne celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.
Terry was a Tulalip Tribes elder, servant of God and one of Mother Earth’s champions. His mission to protect and restore Her resources for future generations was deeply rooted in an intimate relationship with Spirit. A powerful yet humble man, he attributed his accomplishments always to the Creator. “When I look back on all I’ve done,” he said recently, “… something greater [was] guiding me, helping me.”
Terry was born April 23,1948, the second of four children of Reverends Adam Williams and Marjory Williams. His parents’ community-service ministry in the Tulalip Church of God defined Terry’s spiritual and cultural formation. “I was an egg of the Church,” he liked to say. Tulalip’s Mission Beach was his playground, Nature his teacher, timeless Salish tradition and Christian faith the pillars of his lifelong values. From their parents, Terry and his siblings learned unconditional generosity and an indefatigable work ethic.
Before enlisting in the army, Terry studied nursing; returning from Viet Nam a decorated US Army veteran, he earned degrees in Mechanics and Law and Justice over a thirteen-year period while working for the Burlington Northern Railroad. Tulalip Tribes leaders Bernie Gobin and Stan Jones recruited Terry to the tribal Police Department where enforcement issues soon led him to Fisheries and, over the years, to Natural Resources and Treaty Rights. In Washington DC he “worked the Hill” for twenty-five years alongside the revered Nisqually activist Billy Frank, Jr. to advance the Treaty Rights cause. Terry was appointed to a series of influential leadership positions by Washington State Governors Booth Gardner and Chris Gregoire, national EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Presidents Clinton and Obama. In collaboration with a network of expert colleagues, Terry opened doors for indigenous peoples to enter the halls of power, not merely as equals, but rather as confident experts. At the United Nations and the Conventions on Biological Diversity, indigenous representatives now participate in environmental policy-making that codifies their rights of survival and stewardship and strengthens climate change legislation.
Terry had a gift for finding common ground. As the Tulalip Tribes’ environmental justice spokesperson, this tireless warrior fought to bring together traditional knowledge and western science on the battleground of climate action. Clocking hundreds of thousands of air miles, he spread the message of indigenous leadership on environmental issues and spearheaded the creation of numerous tribal, governmental, business and non-profit coalitions. He forged alliances among disparate, often adversarial stakeholders; he taught the players to listen to each other with the same compassionate attention that he gave unfailingly to each and every one. For his well-earned reputation as a thought leader and for the magnitude of his contributions, Terry received countless honors and lifetime achievement awards.
But in the end, that is not what folks are talking about today. Above all, his family, friends and colleagues remember this: Terry embodied agapé, love and kindness. He wished no one ill, spoke gently and looked into people’s eyes with a penetrating warmth, whether they’d just met him or had known him for decades. His older grandchildren recognized and loved his quiet, gentle spirit, while the little ones approached him with joy and delight. We’ll remember that his brilliant mind reached thousands of years back into history — to the moment the people first welcomed the salmon to the watersheds of his beloved Puget Sound. And just as easily, he turned his eyes towards a future centuries away, where he saw indigenous leadership empowering the generations to reap again the abundance they once knew.
Terrance Rollo Williams has joined the ancestors. His mission, far from done, is only enhanced by broader scope and sharper vision. He is survived by the love of his life Suzanne Claire Tabacco Williams, sons Joshua, Jesse and Jamie Williams, grandchildren Alysa, Camila, Isla and Noah Williams, sister Sandy Tracy and brother Daryl Williams.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in Terry’s memory may be sent to:
Global Ocean Health, NFCC, PO Box 30615, Seattle WA 98103
—By Aniko Bahr
Survivor Salmon that Withstand Drought and Ocean Warming Provide a Lifeline for California Chinook
Reply
October 28, 2021, fisheries.noaa.gov
NOAA Fisheries recovery goals include reintroduction to save the late-migrating fish.
A late-migrating spring run Chinook salmon from one of the few Northern California creeks that remain without dams. Credit: Jeremy Notch/UC Santa Cruz.
In drought years and when marine heat waves warm the Pacific Ocean, late-migrating juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon of California’s Central Valley are the ultimate survivors. They are among the few salmon that return to spawning rivers in those difficult years to keep their populations alive. This is according to results published today in Nature Climate Change.
The trouble is that this late-migrating behavior hangs on only in a few rivers where water temperatures remain cool enough for the fish to survive the summer. Today, this habitat is primarily found above barrier dams. Those fish that spend a year in their home streams as juveniles leave in the fall. They arrive in the ocean larger and more likely to survive their 1–3 years at sea.
Scientists examined the ear bones of salmon, called otoliths. These bones incorporate the distinctive isotope ratios of different Central Valley Rivers and the ocean as they grow sequential layers. They looked at Chinook salmon from two tributaries of the Sacramento River without dams that begin beneath Lassen Peak, north of Sacramento. Late-migrating juveniles from Mill Creek and Deer Creek returned from the ocean at much higher rates than more abundant juveniles that leave for the ocean earlier in the spring.
Scientists examined otoliths, the ear bones of salmon, to understand the migration timing of fish that survived drought and poor ocean conditions. Credit: George Whitman and Kimberly Evans/UC Davis
The different timing characteristics of the fish are referred to as “life-history strategies.” Those with a late-migrating life history strategy represented only about 10 percent of outgoing juveniles sampled in fish monitoring traps. However, they were about 60 percent of the returning adult fish across all years, and more than 96 percent of adults from two of the driest years.
“Some years the late migrants were the only life-history strategy that was successful,” said Flora Cordoleani, lead author of the research and associate project scientist with NOAA Fisheries and UC Santa Cruz. “Those fish can make it through the difficult drought conditions on the landscape because they come from the few remaining rivers with accessible high-elevation habitats where water is cool enough through the summer.”
Recovery Strategies Include Reintroduction
The finding underscores the importance of providing secure cool-water habitat for fish so they can survive difficult conditions during drought and ocean warming, said Rachel Johnson, a NOAA Fisheries research scientist, UC Davis researcher and senior author of the study. “Most salmon blocked from their historical habitats appear to migrate just too early and perish once they encounter the warmer water temperatures during droughts.”
“It appears the late-migrating life history has evolved as an insurance policy against the unfavorable spring river conditions that occur during droughts,” said Corey Phillis, a researcher at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and co-author on the study.
The study also projected how Central Valley river temperatures would rise with climate change, leaving only a few higher-elevation rivers cool enough to still sustain salmon. Many of those areas are above existing dams without fish passage.
NOAA Fisheries has outlined reintroduction of salmon to cold-water rivers above dams as a critical recovery strategy for endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook, a NOAA Fisheries Species in the Spotlight. The reintroduction of threatened spring-run Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River watershed has taken hold. Offspring of reintroduced spring-run Chinook salmon are now returning from the ocean. NOAA Fisheries is also advancing the reintroduction of spring-run Chinook to the upper Yuba River upstream of Englebright Dam.
The study found that temperatures would remain cool enough for salmon to survive in the north Yuba River as the climate changes.
“We need to reconnect salmon to their historical habitats so they can draw from their own climate-adapted bag of tricks to persist in a warming world,” Johnson said.
By growing for a year in their home river, the later-migrating fish head for the ocean bigger than the others and in cooler temperatures. That way, more survive and return to rivers to spawn when marine heatwaves warm the ocean and depress salmon survival. A Marine Heatwave Tracker developed by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center shows that heatwaves have become an increasing presence in the Pacific Ocean in the last decade.
A returning adult spring run Chinook salmon leaps from the water in California’s Central Valley. Credit: Carson Jeffres/UC Davis
Heatwaves Reduce Survival
A large heatwave currently stretching across the Pacific off Northern California and Oregon, as shown by the tracker, may affect salmon survival. Warmer ocean waters are generally less productive, reducing salmon survival and depressing returns to rivers.
NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center has developed a “stoplight chart” that projects survival of different salmon species based on different factors at play in the ocean.
The researchers highlighted the importance of protecting varied life histories that may help their species survive climate change. This is particularly true in California, which is at the southern end of the range of many salmon and at the edge of conditions where they can survive.
“The rarest behaviors observed today may be the most important in our future climate,” said Anna Sturrock of the University of Essex and a co-author of the research.
“We show for the first time that the late-migrating strategy is the life-support for these populations during the current period of extreme warming,” the scientists concluded. “As environmental conditions continue to shift rapidly with climate change, maximizing habitat options across the landscape to enhance adaptive capacity and support climate-resilient behaviours may be crucial to prevent extinction.”
Researchers included:
- NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center
- UC Santa Cruz
- UC Davis
- University of Essex
- Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
- Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Deep storage: UVic leads plan to pump carbon into rock under sea floor off Island
The Cascadia Basin, an area more than 100 kilometres off the coast of the Island on the Juan de Fuca Plate, is one of the most studied ocean floors in the world
• Victoria Times Colonist • Sept 27, 2021
Kate Moran, president of Ocean Networks Canada and lead on the Solid Carbon Project. PHOTO BY ADRIAN LAM, TIMES-COLONIST /PNG
VICTORIA — Scientists warn that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are driving the Earth toward a point of no return when it comes to the dire consequences of climate change.
But what if you could pump those gases into rock deep below the ocean floor?
The University of Victoria and its Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions and Ocean Networks Canada divisions are preparing a demonstration project off the coast of Vancouver Island to do just that. The demo, which could be ready for the Cascadia Basin by 2024, could eventually lead to sequestering gigatonnes of emissions around the globe that are driving climate change.
Technology is now being refined to outfit a floating drilling platform with turbines that would gather carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and push it through a pipe to holes bored into the basalt formation. There, scientists say, CO2 would react with minerals and crystallize into rock over time, with hundreds of metres of sediment acting as a sealant.
Since about 90% of the ocean crust is basaltic rock — a porous formation from cooling volcanic lava — researchers say locking up carbon this way could put a “serious dent” in the billions of tonnes of emissions caused by humans each year. It’s currently estimated that human activity adds about 51 gigatons (51 billion tons) of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each year.
“The potential is enormous,” says Kate Moran, president of Ocean Networks Canada and lead on the Solid Carbon Project. She said many of the systems that will be used in the demonstration already exist, such as the drilling technology, pipelines and injection wells and carbon-capture technology — not to mention human resources in the oil and gas industry.
Read more about this CDR pilot project
Upcoming International OA Event
First meeting of the Ocean Acidification international Reference User Group (OAiRUG), 2-4 December 2013, Oceanographic Museum, Monaco.
Tedx talk by Shallin Busch on OA in Washington State
Study: US Methane Emissions 50% Higher Than EPA Estimate
Nov. 25 2013
An oil rig pumps near the hills of California’s Wind Wolves Preserve.
A new study out on Monday says that the United States’ is emitting far more of the greenhouse gas methane than previously thought. The study, published by the National Academy of Sciences, estimates that in 2008 the US emitted 50 percent more methane gas into the atmosphere than was previously thought by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new data indicates that methane could be a bigger challenge in combating global warming than scientists previously thought, according to the Associated Press. Here’s more from the AP:
Methane is 21 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the most abundant global warming gas, although it doesn’t stay in the air as long. Much of that extra methane, also called natural gas, seems to be coming from livestock, including manure, belches, and flatulence, as well as leaks from refining and drilling for oil and gas, the study says.
The new research, NBC News reports, “is based on atmospheric methane measurements taken from the top of telecommunications towers that stick more than 1,000 feet into the air as well as from airplanes.”
20 facts about Ocean Acidification
In early October, Washington Sea Grant released 20 Facts About Ocean Acidification–the product of a collaboration between WSG, NOAA, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Plymouth Marine Labs and other international partners. Feedback on this initial document has helped us improve the precision of the facts, resulting in this November 2013 update: