Some weekly links for July 1

From Costs of War website

Here is this week's highly selective selection of some significant reports, investigations, and studies I encountered this week in the news:

The National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released State of the Climate in 2010, this year's update on 41 worldwide climate indicators, significant climate events, and other climate information. Compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries, it shows 2010 to be one of the two warmest years on record and an increase in carbon dioxide of 2.60 ppm, more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010. Among other findings, global average temperature in 2010 was warmer than the 20th century average for every month in the past quarter century, Arctic sea ice continued to decline, average global sea surface temperature was the third warmest on record, and sea levels continued to rise. The online supplement includes additional data.

San Francisco was named the greenest city in North America in a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Siemens as part of its ongoing Green City Index project. The report rates 27 cities selected to represent a number of the most populous metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada, and it is based on 31 indicators in nine categories intended to measure "their commitment to reducing their future environmental impacts": CO2 emissions reduction, energy, land use, buildings, transport, water, waste, air, and environmental governance. San Francisco has the top overall score and is in the five top scorers in six categories: air, energy, buildings, transport, waste, and water.

The Center for Park Research of the National Parks Conservation Association released The State of America's National Parks, "the culmination of ten years of research on the condition of natural and cultural resources within America's national parks." The assessment reports on long-standing and more recent threats, including unchecked human development, invasive species, climate change, the failure to protect or catalog millions of artifacts, and a general insufficiency of funding to maintain and to interpret park resources. Also highlighting some success stories within the system, it suggests several recommendations for restoring health.

The National Resources Defense Council released Testing the Waters 2011, its annual survey of water quality and public notification at U.S. beaches. Its findings "confirm that our nation’s beaches continue to experience significant water pollution that puts swimmers and local economies at risk." NRDC recommendations focus on addressing the sources of beachwater pollution, particularly contamination carried by stormwater runoff. State-by-state results are available on the website.

And the Costs of War report of the Eisenhower Study Group at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies is a new effort to document and assess as comprehensively as possible the effects of ten years of the United States' wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The goal of the project has been to bring to light and to develop a broad understanding of the human, economic, social, and political costs of these conflicts in the U.S. and abroad.

Among the findings:

• Putting together the conservative numbers of war dead, in uniform and out, brings the total to 225,000.
• The current number of war refugees and displaced persons -- 7,800,000 -- is equivalent to all of the people of Connecticut and Kentucky fleeing their homes.
• The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties at home and human rights violations abroad.
• Conservatively estimated, the war bills already paid and obligated to be paid are $3.2 trillion in constant dollars. A more reasonable estimate puts the number at nearly $4 trillion.
• Afghanistan and Iraq both continue to rank low in global rankings of political freedom, with warlords continuing to hold power in Afghanistan with US support, and Iraqi communities more segregated today than before by gender and ethnicity as a result of the war.
• Serious and compelling alternatives to war were scarcely considered in the aftermath of 9/11 or in the discussion about war against Iraq. Some of those alternatives are still available to the U.S.