Uncategorized

Sequestration

I guess carbon sequestration isn't totally speculative:

Skeptics

One problem with being a slacking blogger is that by the time you get around to writing about something, everyone else has already covered it. So I don't have much new to say about Joel Achenbach's crucial Washington Post piece on the remaining climate-change skeptics.

Some folks are angry that Achenbach gave the skeptics a microphone and refused to pass judgment on them. Others say that by simply giving the skeptics room to make their case in their own words, he skewers them better than any direct attack could, since these wackjobs discredit themselves.

Matt McIrvin and Brad Delong are in the former camp. John Quiggin and Kevin Drum are in the latter camp. As, I suppose, am I. I never trust my perceptions of these articles in the popular press, though. To folks who have followed the debate, these skeptic outliers look like clowns, yes -- we don't need that pointed out. But what about "normal people"? I have no idea.

(See also Achenbach's discussion of the piece and his segment on bloggingheads.tv wherein he discusses it.)

One thing I will say: I don't think it will matter much if the far right's token scientists are finally and totally discredited (much in the way I don't think it matters much that conservative intellectuals have abandoned supply-side economics). These token experts are useful but not necessary. The far right has built a completely insulated, impervious alternate media universe (FOX, talk radio, etc.) through which information is filtered. It doesn't matter if global warming is accepted by all the experts; as long as conservative commentators, radio hosts, and talking heads are willing to spread disinformation -- and have we found any limits yet? -- the disinformation will keep circulating. If experts could quash this stuff once and for all, it would have happened long ago.

More Gore lies!

Details here.

(Yes, you need to have seen the movie to know what I'm talking about.)

Americans and Climate Change: Incentives: Environmentalists

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Ah, now it gets personal! Below is what I consider an extremely astute diagnosis of the reasons professional environmentalists haven't engaged the subject of climate change very well.

God

Check out this story in The Guardian on the tensions emerging on the religious right. It's got lots of juicy stuff, but like everyone else, I'm going straight to the money quote:

Public not sold on nuclear power

A new survey (press release PDF; full results PDF) done by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC), commissioned and released by the Civil Society Institute, finds what I at least consider good news:

Dependence Day

Today, Environmental Action launched a campaign called Dependence Day.

Why today? Well, today marks the symbolic end of America's domestic oil for the year. Proportionally speaking, for the rest of the year we'll be using imported oil.

According to Navin at EA, they've pulled together "a diverse coalition of groups including security experts, environmentalists, consumers, and labor unions -- all of whom agree that America's dependence on oil is one of our greatest threats and that it is time to move beyond decades of rhetoric to actually do something." Word.

Blah blah Pollan interview blah

Dozens of emails flagged. More than 15 tabs open in Firefox. Well over 100 unread entries in the "green" folder of my RSS reader.

These signs all point to one fact: I'm a bad, bad blogger.

I'll try to catch up a little tomorrow.

Do check out my interview with Michael Pollan. He's a smart cookie, and honestly one of the best pure prose stylists in the non-fiction world, IMO.

And here's a question for you: the interview we published is 2,000 words, roughly. But the original interview is much longer, around 10,000 words.

Would y'all have any interest in seeing the whole thing? If so, I could clean it up a little and post it on the blog, maybe in chunks.

How overfishing and pollution are changing our eating habits

I love fish as much as the next guy. Broiled, baked, fried, it doesn't matter -- as long as it's swimming in butter (no pun intended). But being an expert in the plight of our oceans precludes me from rewarding my palate at every opportunity. As the New York Times reports, "many [fish] varieties are nearly depleted and many have been tainted by industrial pollution."

So I constantly consult my pocket seafood guide (PDF) to remember which is the "good" fish and which is the "bad." It's a shame that our short-sighted, destructive practices have forced us to rely on such guides, but they are an essential resource. Hopefully they'll catch on more than Richard Simmons's deal-a-meal did.

Google maps go green

Check out Have a Green Summer, a collaboration between the Earth Day Network and Google that helps you find eco-friendly vacation destinations. Very cool.