Laserfiche WebLink
5 <br />Table 5-1 <br />DEIS Comments and. Responses <br />Commenter Comment Comment/Response <br /> <br /> unusually cold summer." Damage to humans and infrastructure from floods is <br /> also predicted to increase.14 <br /> Scientists have long predicted increasing weather variability and heightened <br /> intensity of storms like hurricanes due to increasing ocean temperatures. <br /> Extreme weather events have in fact increased, with catastrophic results, both <br /> in loss of lives and in economic costs. Global weather related losses from <br /> extreme events have increased dramatically since the 1950s, measured in 2004 <br /> U.S. dollars. "While no one event is diagnostic of climate change, the <br /> relentless pace of unusually severe weather since 2001- prolonged droughts, <br /> heat waves of extraordinary intensity, violent windstorms and more frequent <br /> '100 year' floods - is descriptive of a changing climate."15 <br /> One of the most troubling recent findings is that the IPCC projection for sea <br /> level rise is almost certainly a significant underestimate. Melting of the <br /> Greenland ice sheet has accelerated far beyond what scientists predicted even <br /> just a few years ago, with melting in 2004 occurring at 10 times the rates <br /> observed in 2000.16 <br /> Sea level rise in line with past underestimates would still inundate substantial <br /> areas of the coast and have far-reaching consequences. Yet just 2-3° C of <br /> additional warming would likely cause sea level to rise by at least 18 feet (6 <br /> m) within a century, and would flood vast areas and displace millions of <br /> people. <br /> In sum, the costs of global warning in terms of human life, biological <br /> richness, and money, will be astronomical. The DEIS must be revised to <br /> include a meaningful discussion of the 168 coal gas drainage wells' <br /> cumulative impacts in terms of global warming. <br /> RESPONSE: The Forest Service does not dispute assertions that greenhouse <br /> gases contribute to climate change. However, the magnitude of climate <br /> change on a national or global scale is outside the scope of this document. <br /> CEQ regulations are clear on the level of analysis required when information <br /> is incomplete or unavailable. The FEIS, Chapter 3, Air Quality further <br /> discusses this situation with respect to climate change. <br />Rocky Mountain The contribution of coal mine methane gas to global warming <br />Clean Air Action The DEIS at page 11 identifies methane emissions in terms of global warming <br />(comment as a "nonsignificant" issue. This claim is not supported in light of the methane <br />received 5/9/07- emissions and the projected impacts of global warming, as discussed above. <br />after comment Furthermore, given that the DEIS presents no analysis and assessment of <br />period, no appeal projected methane emissions from the 168 proposed coal gas drainage wells <br />standing) that will operate for 12 years, the USFS has no basis upon which to conclude <br /> that methane emissions are anon-significant issue. <br /> Other agencies, in fact, identify methane emissions from coal mining as a <br /> significant issue. The Department of Energy, for example, has stated: <br /> The release of methane into the atmosphere, either through natural seeps, <br /> ventilation during mining, or via other means, has environmental <br /> consequences. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with 21 times the global <br /> warmin otential of carbon dioxide. In fact, coal minin accounts for about <br />.- <br />• <br />• <br />190 Deer Creek Ventilation Shaft and E Seam Methane Drainage Wells FEIS <br />