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Funnyish

Here’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the IPCC report:

Game over? Hardly.

With the new IPCC report finally out in the world, climate activists can again focus on action. What do we do now?

I say, first let's cut through the defeatism that's posing as realism, as in this article in yesterday's L.A. Times, "Game over on global warming?":

Everybody in the United States could switch from cars to bicycles.

The Chinese could close all their factories.

Europe could give up electricity and return to the age of the lantern.

But all those steps together would not come close to stopping global warming.

Really? I ran the numbers and came up with a 17-18% reduction in global CO2 emissions (4.3% from zapping U.S. cars, 7.7% for closing Chinese factories, 5.6% for converting European electricity to wind).

Hasn't the Times heard of harm reduction? Every percentage drop in emissions will translate into some mitigation in sea level rises, violent storms, and other harms from global warming.

No less vexing, for this writer, was Robert Reich's blog reaction to the IPCC report. The former Clinton Secretary of Labor hadn't even finished his lead paragraph when he threw in the towel: "You can forget a carbon tax any time soon."

C'mon, Bob. Don't mourn, organize. Surrendering just when a political critical mass is assembling to attack carbon emissions is, well, un-American. A carbon tax is essential, and the work of coaxing the public and pressuring policymakers has to start now. There's just no alternative.

Canada needs help saving it

I don’t usually pass these things along, but this email caught my eye: —– With last week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report concluding that humans are significantly increasing global warming, we’re all looking for some global warming news with a glimmer of hope and potential. To our North, Canada is on the brink of […]

An Inconvenient Truth to show in U.K. schools

Despite getting a frosty reception in U.S. public schools, the (Oscar-nominated) film An Inconvenient Truth will be distributed to every secondary school in the U.K. Environment Secretary David Miliband and Education Secretary Alan Johnson made the announcement last week, citing the film’s ability to illustrate the enormity of the climate crisis without leaving viewers feeling […]

And aiming to be green

Pop-rock quintet Barenaked Ladies is back on the road, touring through Canada after returning from their Ships and Dip cruise last month, and getting a bit of press about their efforts to be green(ish). Grist, of course, was all over that story last year. A few stats from the fall B.L.A.M. tour: Fans neutralized almost […]

Just ’cause it’s fun

Apropos of Anna's fascinating post yesterday, I decided to do a little digging to find out if Canada's superior record of concern for the environment is translating into a better record for the planet.

So far, it's not. At least not when it comes to climate change, which I'd argue is the biggest environmental (and economic and social justice) challenge facing the world.

Setting some facts straight about the future of carbon regulation in the U.S.

Gar Lipow offers up his latest critique of carbon offsets, which this time is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the underlying science of greenhouse gases. The story, for those following along at home, can be summarized thusly:

• Gar feels that carbon offsets are, among other things, the "enemy of the human race."
• I feel that offsets are an interesting policy option with kinks to be worked out. The kinks are not nearly so fundamental or intractable as some would have you believe.

The following discussion gets a bit dense, but it's also highly instructive, so I recommend soldiering through if this is a topic you're interested in.

Reading it will make you smarter

It’s 2009. Democratic majorities have expanded in the House and become filibuster-proof in the Senate. Astride the executive branch stands the only American ever to win a Nobel Peace Price prior to being elected president: Al Gore. The star of 2006’s Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is known the world over as a prophet […]

Bush underfunds efficiency

While Bush talks a good game on energy security, he doesn't back the rhetoric up with action. That is especially true when it comes to his own budget, as made clear in a press release from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:

Diapers and a BB gun

Sorry, this has nothing to do with the environment, but it is the greatest story ever. Update [2007-2-6 15:19:24 by David Roberts]: Heard from across the office: “I heard she was carrying a loaded diaper!”