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California’s Million Solar Roofs bill signed into law

SB 1, California's Million Solar Roofs bill, was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday. For those new to the story, this bill -- which some have called humankind's last, best hope for surviving global warming -- failed to pass out of the legislature three years running, until the California Public Utilities Commission enacted the meat of the measure -- $3.2 billion in rebates for one million solar roofs -- through a regulatory process last January. This bill codifies that funding into legislation, and fills in several very important missing pieces. Namely:

Tell me something

What is the thought process that leads someone to think that, at this particular moment in history, the most important thing to devote one's energy to is policing the environmental community to make sure they don't exaggerate or shade facts or use unnecessarily shrill language?

I mean, I can see calling that stuff out when you come across it. But making it your shtick?

It's as though Hitler were invading France and someone spent their time publishing pamphlets scolding Allied soldiers for their bad posture.

Hurricane director thinks coastal-dwellers are morons

The coast is no longer where it's at, if for no other reason than the potential for mega-disaster. Says Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, "as long as we continue to develop the coastline like we are, we're setting up for disaster."

He might as well be whispering into a gale-force wind for all the good it'll do. We seem determined to screw ourselves over, on this and many other counts. But good for him for speaking up.

A self-endorsed celeb fights for the planet

Tired of celebrities. Declares self one. Distributes Lester Brown's book to all. Saves world.

A little bit country, a little bit pathetic and lazy

To animal lovers, the idea of proudly displaying the remains of something you hunted down and killed is a sad aspect of male bravado. Well, consider if the animal was a domestic creature raised in a cage for tourists to photograph. Troy Lee Gentry, of the country music duo Montgomery Gentry, has been charged with paying $4,650 to the Minnesota Wildlife Connection to kill a tame bear named "Cubby."

Animal terrorism

First there was the pack of squirrels that attacked and killed a dog in Russia. Now there's a group of "urban" raccoons taking out house cats in Olympia, WA. Apparently they even managed to carry off a small dog, although it survived the encounter.

What's next? Serpents that infest a jet airliner and viciously attack the passengers with poison fangs? (Woops, didn't mean to spoil any movie plots ...)

In other news, a Celebrity Cruises ship arrived in Seward, Alaska, last weekend with a dead humpback whale pinned to the bow.

The latest transmission from Mongo

Yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Mongo) reiterated his skepticism about climate change. He claimed that the purported concern over global warming is a front for international economic movements (I'm assuming of the socialist variety). Relatedly, Inhofe said that the U.N. is trying to impose a "global tax" and that the U.S. should cut off its funding.

And then there's this:

U.S. involvement in Iraq has been incredibly successful and developments there have been "nothing short of a miracle," Sen. James Inhofe said Monday.

Fear and environmentalism: more

(Second in a series; first part here.)

The brain's alarm circuits are clustered in an almond-shaped neural structure called the amygdala, known colloquially as the "lizard brain." When it receives warning that a threat may be present, it sends a chemical fight-or-flight signal.

The prefrontal cortex, source of higher cognitive functions, assesses whether the threat signals (which are frequent, as the amygdala operates on a bit of a hair-trigger) are worthy of attention. It acts as a check; it has to, or complex thought would be impossible. We'd always be fighting or flighting.

This simplifies things quite a bit, obviously. But it's no mere metaphor to say that fear (flight) and anger (fight) are pre-rational -- or if you prefer, arational. They are the deepest and most fundamental dispositions, what we share with every creature, amoeba and up. We humans flatter ourselves about our intellectual powers, but in the end we are animals, and hormonal danger signals can quite easily overwhelm all rational thought. Fear and anger are prior; reasons, justifications, and evidence are posterior.

The most inconvenient truth

When many environmentalists discuss the costs of significantly reducing CO2 emissions in the near-to-medium future, there is a degree of unreality clouding the discourse. There is plenty of talk of new technologies and improvements in energy efficiency, but insufficient discussion of the projected demands for energy in the future.

The reality is that there are billions of people in less developed countries who have been waiting a long time to enjoy the comforts and luxuries we take for granted in the developed nations, and they are not going to put aside their material aspirations for the sake of global warming, no matter how convincing the evidence.

Radioinactive

Nuclear industry will move forward, but not significantly The much-heralded revival of the U.S. nuclear industry is moving at a less-than-explosive pace (ha ha!). The slow growth isn’t for lack of trying by the Bush administration, whose 2005 energy bill juices the industry with tax credits, insurance, loan guarantees, a ceiling on accident liability damages, […]