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More on ‘Hell and High Water’

Joe Romm, author of Hell and High Water, wrote me about the review I posted earlier. I referred to the book as "depressing," but the tone is frank, not truly gloomy. Romm has none of Lovelock's penchant for drama.

Nonetheless, depression really was my reaction, because I'm familiar with Romm's work. He is known as a level-headed, optimistic analyst. His book is no exception -- he documents the problem and the (quite mainstream) solutions he endorses throughly and meticulously. So what is the problem?

Buried treasures herein

Too many tabs open! Got to … jettison … some links … In a short piece for the NYT Week in Review, Andy Revkin covers the basics of climate change using (as far as I know) a new metaphor: the evidence for global warming is like a pointillist painting, clear in its broad outlines but […]

A review of Joe Romm’s new book

Joseph Romm's Hell and High Water may be the most depressing book on global warming I've ever read.

He writes of a "Planetary Purgatory" [UPDATE - by the 22nd Century], where sea level rises 20 feet, many coastal cities are subject to such frequent hurricanes they are abandoned, and most of the Greenland ice mass melts. What are today considered heat waves become normal summers, with more and more forest and agricultural land lost to fire and drought.

Here's the really bad news: this is not what Romm is trying to avoid, but what he hopes to settle for.

Being green on a budget

For all the low-income environmentalists wandering through Gristmill, this week we’re launching a new, sorta-regular column, “Ask a Brokeass.” As your resident Gristmill brokeass, I’ll be (attempting to) address the concerns of folks with skinny wallets and big hearts. If the organics section at Safeway makes you queasy and the conventional veggies section wrecks you […]

Bush promises big change on global warming

According to the Guardian, Bush has finally agreed to give Blair a pony: George Bush is preparing to make a historic shift in his position on global warming when he makes his State of the Union speech later this month, say senior Downing Street officials. Tony Blair hopes that the new stance by the United […]

Not every ‘environmental’ action makes sense

I spotted a freshly remodeled house in my neighborhood the other day. It had a large array of shiny new PV solar panels on the roof. Wouldn't it be great to be able to afford such things? Wouldn't it feel great to watch your electric meter spinning backwards?

You don't see many solar panels in Seattle. It piqued my curiosity, so I found a solar cost calculator to find what it would cost to replace my electricity use with panels. The answer is about $160,000 dollars (taking about half a century to break even).

Tamminen and hydrogen

I wrote Terry Tamminen a few days ago and offered him a venue to defend his support for hydrogen cars, which is taking quite a beating in comments. Here’s his response: Hi David, I’ve looked over the various comments on hydrogen and rather than comment back, it’s all covered in the book. It’s not a […]

A lifelong conservative questions his hatred of hippies

Via Glenn Greenwald, conservative and National Review contributor Rod Dreher's commentary on NPR is a must-hear (oral essay) on his disillusionment under the Bush Administration. Regarding Dave's hippie-bashing bashing lately, this part is especially relevant:

Readers write in about coal’s villainy, eating locally, sexy eco-geeks, and more

  Re: One Nation, Under Terry Dear Editor: I read Terry Tamminen’s book, and overall I think it’s a very credible effort by a very good guy. He does a bang-up job laying out the case against petroleum. But he’s guilty of a serious (possibly fatal, given his position and influence) error in saying that […]

The meme all the kids are talking about!

I got to thinking (again) about an elevator pitch for greens — the "What Greens Want" that can be explained in a short elevator ride. Ideally the message would be simple enough to communicate, but meaty enough to imply some real choices and policies. The second part of my Tom Paine piece is an attempt […]