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Climate science, say hello to Decision Science

Recently, the issue of how to frame the global-warming debate has come up repeatedly. David sums it up here.

It's gotten me thinking about the confluence between climate science and decision science. Communicating about global warming can not be reduced to a simple up or down vote on the use of doom and gloom, or a tradeoff between bad science and a complete value change. In the end, how, when, and most importantly, why people start to seriously address global warming will be 1/10th about the climate science and 9/10ths about good ol' wacky human decision making.

New Wired green issue goes a little overboard

The latest issue of Wired -- the "green issue," now de rigueur in the magazine world -- has Al Gore on the cover, and the story on his "resurrection" is fantastic. It's one of the best things I've read on his post-2000 activities.

Some of the rest of the issue, however, is irritating -- nothing so much so as this risible chart by Josh Rosenblum, a rating of various environmental groups based on a set of scientific criteria known as How Much They Agree With Josh Rosenblum. The more green groups collaborate with private industries and support (as far as I can tell, any) high-tech responses to environmental problems, the closer they come to Wired true north. Any tension with business, or reservations about nuclear power or coal gasification ... well hell, that's just hippie.

And speaking of hippies: the "Rise of the Neo-Greens" practically bursts a blood vessel admiring the clever young fashionistas "triangulating between the hippies and the hip."

Craig Williams took on the Pentagon to stop chemical-waste burning

“We’re a little outnumbered, and a little outspent,” says Craig Williams, “but we’ve turned around decisions by the biggest bureaucracy on the planet.” Williams, founder of the nonprofit Chemical Weapons Working Group and a cabinetmaker by trade, has been fighting for more than two decades to ensure that the U.S. military disposes of chemical weapons […]

PSA: Net neutrality

There's great hue and cry in the blogosphere lately over "net neutrality." I won't attempt to summarize it here, as it's fairly complex. The best way to understand it is for you (and your friends) to watch this short video.

It's not strictly an environmental issue, but in the sense it that it could degrade your access to information, it is a threat to any progressive cause. Don't let the telecom bastards get away with it.

(via Dymaxion World)

Bungle in the Jungle

Critics say Peru pipeline is an accident waiting to happen Don’t get us wrong: Peru is a lush, gorgeous country, and you should certainly enter our sweepstakes to win an eco-trip there. (Seriously, what are you waiting for?) But like most countries, Peru has its environmental challenges. And today we bring word of one that’s […]

You Darwin Some, You Lose Some

One coral species found able to adapt to warmer waters; others screwed Last year, unusually warm Caribbean waters killed some 40 percent of the coral around the U.S. Virgin Islands and weakened much of the rest. This year, wouldn’t you know it, the waters are warming again. “It’s impossible to overstate how important this is,” […]

We said, he said

The White House's scramble for microwave-ready neatly-packaged short-term fixes for the slow-cooking problems behind rising energy prices leaves us ... well, hungry.

But to his credit, the president did chuck aside one favorite conservative canard:

"This nation does not have to choose between a strong economy and a clean environment," Mr. Bush said in remarks at the Fuel Cell Partnership ... "We can have both at the same time."

Next time you hear complaints that progress with a green stripe will wreck the economy, quote Mr. Bush to the contrary.

Two canards down, lots to go

A new study done on behalf of the UK's Economic and Social Research Council is summarized as follows:

The role of radical activists and advocates of green technology has long been dismissed as out of tune with rational economic progress. Yet in practice they have often been a key source of ideas that have seeded new industries in areas like food production, housing and energy. Rather than dismissing such activists and their niche ideas as hopelessly idealistic, mainstream business and policy makers should recognise that they present a diversity of options for sustainability and learn from them.

Word.

Put it on the shelf beside the classic from MIT's Stephen Myer, "The Economic Impact of Environmental Regulation" (PDF), summarized as follows:

More details on the Ford/TerraPass partnership

Attentive Daily Grist readers already know that Ford Motor Co. and carbon-offset company TerraPass have formed a new partnership (the official announcement will come tomorrow, but there are details on the TerraPass blog).

The companies have set up a co-branded website where Ford owners can enter their make, model, year, and driving habits to find out exactly how much CO2 they produce in a year -- and buy carbon credits to offset it. Money from the partnership credits will go to the Ainsworth Wind Facility in Nebraska and the Haubenschild dairy farm, near Princeton, Minnesota (Ford chose those two products from TerraPass' portfolio, based on their marketability). Credits will come with a decal drivers can affix to their windshields.

Ford gets no money from the credit purchases; the partnership is part of a broader climate-change strategy for the company. While it has no plans for a broad advertising campaign, it will be giving educational brochures to dealers and linking to the site from several Ford product sites. TerraPass gets some money and promotion from Ford. The deal is exclusive for a short while (a matter of months), and after that TerraPass is free to make deals with other car companies; the contract itself is for a year.

I just got off the phone with Tom Arnold (sadly not the portly actor from Roseanne), the Chief Environmental Officer for TerraPass. The most startling thing he told me was that Ford approached TerraPass about this, not vice versa.

A heartbreaking collection of monologues from those affected by the disaster

Today is the 20th anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine. And in remembrance, I bring to you a special edition of Under the Covers, highlighting the book Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, which recently hit my desk with an incredibly depressing thud. Written — or rather, collected — […]