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Come gaze at your navel for a while

Should we focus our efforts on slowing future climate warming (mitigation) or preparing for future climate warming (adaptation), or both? The question is rife with political and practical complexities. I’m sure we’ll have many occasions to discuss them soon. But I want to try to put the politics and practicalities aside for a moment and […]

Cloudy, With a Chance of Powers

As Asian economies grow, increased pollution affecting world’s weather Scientists say smog from Asia is drifting east, seeding storm clouds, and intensifying weather in the Pacific. On a typical spring or summer day, they say, nearly a third of the air high above the U.S. West Coast comes from Asia. And according to a report […]

Creation Careless

Evangelical policy director chastised for speaking out on climate change Rev. Richard Cizik, policy director for the National Association of Evangelicals, says global warming is human-caused and the God-fearing should take it seriously. Science-based belief? Quelle horreur! Last week, a group of conservative Christian leaders unaffiliated with NAE wrote a letter urging the NAE board […]

The Knights Who Say NIH

Health agency reviews bisphenol A safety as controversy swirls Ignoring the news about bisphenol A? Time to pay attention, cuz the plastic resin is used in everyday products from baby bottles to canned goods and linked to a host of health problems. And with the National Institutes of Health reviewing the safety of BPA this […]

Peek beneath the sarcasm and machismo

Is there anything to be gained by wading into this article from Jonah Goldberg? The mere prospect leaves me fatigued. The piece actually makes sense on its own pinched, cowardly terms. It proceeds from common conservative premises: Economic development and environmental protection are a zero-sum game; add to one, you subtract from the other. In […]

Too little, too late?

China will award a contract to build two nuclear reactors in its southeast to France's Areva SA, a Chinese official said according to reports in China Daily and other publications.

The deal, covering two reactors for Yangjiang in Guangdong Province, had originally been awarded to Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse Electric Co., which will get an agreement for two other reactors in Shandong Province. The sources said that China needs to add two reactors a year to meet a 2020 target of increasing the share of nuclear in total power from 2.3 percent to 4 percent. Areva and Westinghouse are competing to build as many as 26 more reactors by 2020 as China turns to atomic energy to cut pollution and carbon emissions and reduce its reliance on oil.

Those people are smart

Robert J. Shapiro of the The American Consumer Institute favors a carbon tax (PDF) over emission trading:

Based on recent economic analyses and evidence, it is clear that carbon taxes are the more effective and efficient strategy for addressing climate change, and provide stronger incentives to develop alternative fuels and more energy-efficient technologies.

The latest from the makers of The Meatrix

The latest from Free Range Studios, makers of The Meatrix:

The DaVersity Code. Check it.

A radio debate

Some people think that solar is too expensive to justify public spending. Put your public funds into energy efficiency now, which is much cheaper, and wait for solar's costs to come down. Severin Borenstein, Director of the University of California Energy Institute, is one such person.

Others think that the best way to have cheap solar in the future is to invest in building a market now -- if there is a market, private money will flow into R&D, ecomonies of scale will develop, and costs will come down. JP Ross of Vote Solar is a member of this camp.

On Saturday, they went mano-a-mano on Air America's EcoTalk. Listen to the fireworks here.

First human-gene-containing rice gets initial approval, London hatches ambitious climate plan, and m

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: CSI: My Apiary If At First You Don’t Secede But Wait, There’s More Carry On My Wayward Gene Yes We Ken Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Something in the Way She Movies Blowing It Cleaning House