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Time: “The science of climate change grows more dire.”

“World leaders say Copenhagen to be a steppingstone to final climate deal,” as I wrote on Sunday.   Here is an excerpt from Time magazine’s take on the matter, “World Leaders Put Off a Climate Change Treaty,” by Bryan Walsh: If there is a bright side, however, the deliberate downshift in expectations for Copenhagen could make […]

General Motors to start repaying government loans

The NY Times story has one of the true glass-is-half-full headlines of our times: G.M., Citing Progress, Reports Loss of $1.15 Billion But these days, you take good news where you can find it, and the rest of the story is certainly a pleasant surprise:   General Motors, whose very survival was in doubt this […]

The road to Copenhagen

NASA reports hottest June to October on record

Fast on the heels of the hottest June to September on record*, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies reports that last month was tied for the second hottest September on record (after 2005). Unlike NOAA, which announced its October global analysis with a major “State of the Climate” monthly update, NASA just quietly updates its […]

Best. Review. Ever.

Freakonomics got super freaky. And super wrong. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner are to blame for the global financial crisis. See, back in 2005, they wrote “Freakonomics,” a wildly successful book brimming with interesting stories about why incentives matter and how actions have unintended consequences. Indeed, incentives do matter, and actions (or publications) […]

World leaders say Copenhagen to be a stepping stone

Some very good news on the international front, as the UK Guardian reports today: During a hastily convened breakfast meeting in Singapore, the US president supported a Danish plan to salvage something from the moribund negotiations by aiming for a broad political agreement and postponing contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer…. The […]

The environMENTALIST contest

One of my guilty pleasures is the CBS crime show, The Mentalist.  One-time fake psychic Patrick Jane uses his powers of observation and deduction to figure out the answer to the mystery before everyone else. So here’s the contest for all you would-be environ-Mentalists.  Use your amazing powers of observation and deduction to figure out […]

SuperFreakonomics coauthor replies to “scathing review”

On Monday, The New Yorker published Elizabeth Kolbert’s lengthy review of SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance.  In her 2400-word review, titled “Hosed:  Is there a quick fix for the climate?” she writes: Given their emphasis on cold, hard numbers, it’s noteworthy that Levitt and Dubner ignore what […]

Record high temperatures far outpace record lows across U.S.

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb. This graphic shows the […]

U.N. deputy says Copenhagen deal may take two stage approach

The top climate lieutenant to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that a major — though perhaps preliminary — international agreement to curb global warming is still possible in Copenhagen. One leading option is to set low targets for emissions reductions initially and to boost them if global warming gets worse. Janos Pasztor, director […]