Al Gore is testifying on Capitol Hill twice on Wednesday -- before John Dingell's House Energy and Commerce Committee and Barbara Boxer's Senate Environment Committee. According to the Drudge Report (link may only be temporary), "Proposed questions for Gore, which are circulating behind-the-scenes, have been obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT -- questions that could lead Gore scrambling for answers!" Here are the questions, which would not cause a fifth grader to scramble, but I am flattered to make the list: Mr. Gore: You have said several times that we have 10 years to act to stave off global warming. Was …

Steve Connor from the U.K.'s The Independent summarized what we learned in 2006 with the article "Review of the year: Global warming," subheaded with, "Our worst fears are exceeded by reality." According to Connor, "2006 will be remembered by climatologists as the year in which the potential scale of global warming came into focus. And the problem can be summarised in one word: feedback." Connor has collected and examined research from the last year on positive and negative feedback cycles, and he lays some out in layman's language. Yet his reporting is not diluted at all. To the contrary, it's …

For some Christians, teaching the science of climate change contradicts religious beliefs. But a growing group of evangelical environmentalists has been working to change that view. For a few years, Richard Cizik, the Vice President for Governmental Affairs with the National Association of Evangelicals, has spoken out as passionately in favor of addressing climate change as he has against abortion, gay marriages or embryonic stem-cell research. You can read an interview with him at Grist and hear one from NPR. Despite his being isolated by several other religious leaders, Cizik is not alone. The New York Times has also featured …

"The violence in Darfur is usually attributed to ethnic hatred. But global warming may be primarily to blame," concludes the Atlantic Monthly (sub. req). The article is worth quoting at length, for two reasons. First, the world needs to understand its moral obligation in Darfur if human emissions of greenhouse gases were a major contributing cause to the crisis. Second, the article almost single-handedly contradicts an absurd article that appears in the same issue by Gregg Easterbrook, suggesting that global warming might have as many winners as losers (which I will discuss in a later post). Here are the key …

At last, some of the nation's biggest newspapers have been making a big deal of energy efficiency and conservation. Over the weekend the Washington Post ran an article on California's ambitious and profitable efforts by utilities. The Post's article followed an energy series by the Wall Street Journal on cutting energy use and costs. Two of the WSJ pieces worth highlighting (sub req'd) are "How to Cut Energy Costs," which provides options for saving energy and money around the house, and "The Bottom Line," whose content overlaps with the Post's piece. All three pieces overlap in that their bottom line …

Irony is no stranger to our posts derived from the U.S. Drought Monitor, and again, this case is no exception. The monitor reveals severe to extreme drought covering most of the state of Wyoming (for at least the last three months), the home of none other than Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney represented Wyoming for just over a decade on Capitol Hill (in the House) and his career is sturdily rooted in the coal and petroleum businesses that he backed in Wyoming, before becoming CEO of Halliburton. In some form or another, Cheney has contributed his share of greenhouse gases, …

As if it were news, a report by Intellichoice.com found that over a five-year span, the owner of a Prius saves more than $13,000 compared to the owner of a similar non-hybrid. In fact, the savings apply "across the board," to all 22 hybrids evaluated. What's more, the study was the most inclusive of any yet: It factored in insurance, fuel, taxes, maintenance, and the works. Read it to believe it, but it just confirms what many of us have been saying for years.

Reports out of Spain over the holidays indicate that Siberian bears aren't the only ones losing sleep this winter. In the Cantabarian mountains of northern Spain, mother bears are postponing hibernation to gather food that isn't usually available. Experts predict that 2006 will go down as Spain's warmest year on record. The warmer winter is causing nuts and berries to last further into the season, thus proving it "energetically worthwhile" for the bears not to hibernate and collect food instead. In an article starring the bears, Mark Wright from the World Wide Fund for Nature commented: I think it's an …

As Pedro Moura Costa, founder of the carbon credit trading company EcoSecurities, explained: If you pick a winner in the right technology in the search for a low carbon economy you are talking about potentially billions. It is really the holy grail. The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme is giving investors in the carbon market a glimpse of the future, and it's a "green goldrush." The flood of investments in carbon trading and green technology funds has quickly created a market worth billions, and projected to be as much as $40 billion by 2012. One businessman in New York guesses that …

In the House Oversight Committee's hearing on political interference with the scientific evidence of climate change, Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) proclaimed in disbelief and frustration that, "Today we have a planet that's smoking!" He, like many before him, likened the campaign to cast doubt on global warming with the tobacco industry's campaign in the 1990s to distort information on the health impacts of smoking cigarettes. In early 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a report along those same lines, exposing the disinformation campaign by ExxonMobil which used tobacco industry-like tactics. They also published an online periodical table that serves …