This week's TIME has a big package of stories on global warming. Upping the ante on the de rigueur "10 things you can do," the magazine offers a whopping 51, an odd mix of large structural reforms and consumer tips like drying your clothes on a clothesline. Coming in at No. 1? Ethanol. Oy. Then again, a carbon tax comes in at No. 5, so all is not lost. Also earning the DR thumbs up: geothermal heat, urban living, cutting down on meat, supporting farmers markets, and just for the weirdness factor, avoiding left turns. Elsewhere in the issue, you …

This past Friday, I was once again invited to be on FOX's Hannity & Colmes. Last time, you'll recall, I was to discuss the grave and momentous subject of Al Gore's hypocrisy. This time, the subject was even graver and momentouser: John Travolta's hypocrisy. (Last time I got bumped for Daryl Hannah. This time I was both too busy and too sick. Someday!) Travolta, you see, recently opined on the subject of global warming, just after driving a Harley down the red carpet at the premiere of his new movie Wild Hogs. Sayeth Travolta: "It [global warming] is a very …

This article in the NYT should give reason for pause. The rich countries are preparing themselves to adapt to climate change, and doing very little to help the poor nations, which are the most vulnerable. I think environmentalists should take this issue very seriously since completely preventing climate change is unlikely to happen.

Many global warming deniers have moved on from denying the existence or human causes of global warming to denying it's worthwhile to do anything to mitigate it. "Burn all the fossil fuels you want", they suggest, "and adapt to the changes. Doing anything to reduce global warming is too expensive." In a spirit of reconciliation, I thought I'd put forward some specific proposals to implement their approach. On a planet with unchecked greenhouse warming, we would have a less predictable climate, warmer on average, but with unpredictable frosts and snowstorms -- some of them in places we currently don't get …

Science is a collective, multi-layered process consisting of three steps. First is the individual scientist testing hypotheses according to the norms of their field. Second, the results of the individual scientist undergo peer-review and are published for the community to evaluate. At this point a result may be considered preliminary, but not proven. Third, important claims are then re-tested in the "crucible of science" -- they are either reproduced by independent scientific groups or they have their implications tested to insure consistency with the existing body of scientific knowledge. After enough tests/reproductions, a consensus emerges that the idea is correct. …

Last week I reported on the wide and growing partisan divide in U.S. public opinion over global warming: self-identified Democrats are 39 percentage points more likely than their Republican counterparts to rate climate change a serious problem. But what puzzled me most was the 13-point drop in concern among Republicans since 1999. Call me naïve, but with all the scientific evidence that's been piling up on the issue -- accompanied by increasing media attention -- I guess I expected slow (though perhaps reluctant) increases in concern all across the political spectrum. Years of rising global temperatures, melting sea ice, and …

My new favorite blog in the whole wide world is Shorpy, "the 100-year-old photo blog." It's just what it says: it collects old pictures. That description doesn't do it justice, though. It's fascinating. For instance, check out this picture of Miss America contestants from 1927 -- interesting to see how standards of beauty have and haven't changed, hm? Or check out the rows and rows of folks hard at work in the computing division, from some time between 1909 and 1932: Kinda looks like the Grist office! Anyhoo, to make this at least moderately green, check out Shorpy's reprint of …

I know there are Gristmill readers with high hopes for algae-based biofuels. They will enjoy this piece in Popular Mechanics. Here's the hope: Solix addresses these problems [algae's finicky growing habits] by containing the algae in closed "photobioreactors" -- triangular chambers made from sheets of polyethylene plastic (similar to a painter's dropcloth) -- and bubbling supplemental carbon dioxide through the system. Eventually, the source of the CO2 will be exhaust from power plants and other industrial processes, providing the added benefit of capturing a potent greenhouse gas before it reaches the atmosphere. Given the right conditions, algae can double its …

I confess I had never heard of VBS.tv before they wrote us. It's an internet TV station that grew out of Vice magazine. Poking around their site, I must say it looks pretty damn cool. Raw, but cool. I've been wondering when a viable internet TV production outfit will pop up. Maybe this is it. (Here's the mission statement, if you're interested.) The reason they wrote us is to flag an investigative series they did called Toxic: West Virginia. To wit: Part 1: Mountaintop Removal Part 2: Reclamation Part 3: Miners Part 4: Coal Companies Part 5: Water Here's the …

There's not much new in this story about Dingell -- yeah, yeah, he's going to move slowly and deliberately on climate change -- but I really hate this way of framing things: Speaking with reporters, Dingell said that he expects the end result to elicit complaints from both environmentalists and industrialists. "I seriously doubt if anybody is going to be happy with what we do, and that may be the best test of whether we have written a good bill," he said. The "best test," really? First of all, no. Memo to Dingell: it's entirely possible that if both environmentalists …