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Global warming will make future hurricanes worse, full stop

Ignore the members of the peanut gallery bleating about whether or not we can blame hurricane Irene on global warming. What matters is that in the future, warmer temperatures will mean more moisture in the air, so more flooding. And higher sea levels will make cities, especially New York, substantially more vulnerable to storm surges.

Elizabeth Kolbert, in The New Yorker:

Are more events like Irene what you would expect in a warming world? Here the answer is a straightforward “yes."

Brit gives NIMBYists the tongue-lashing they deserve

Writing in the Times (of New York, not London), Roger Cohen points out that even though 82 percent of Brits are in favor of wind power, only one in three on-shore projects is ever built, owing to "Not in My Back Yard" attitudes. Apparently Her Majesty’s citizens are all for wind power as long as it happens in one of the colonies. (“We still have colonies, right?”)

Jaded New Yorkers aside, Irene was serious business

With Hurricane Irene, now a tropical storm, going relatively easy on Gotham, some New Yorkers are feeling ripped off. The New York Times quotes several locals furiously white-whining about extra batteries, too much tuna fish, and the general "buzz kill" of not being subject to death and property damage. 

Everything you've heard about the tar sands and energy security is wrong

Here’s the reality: Protecting the United States’ energy security means keeping our continent’s oil in the ground for when we need it in an emergency.

Critical List: Gore analogizes skeptics to racists; why Irene calmed down

According to Al Gore, climate skeptics are the new racists: they say crazy things in casual conversation that others let slide -- for now.

Here’s why Irene gave NYC a break.

NASA scientist James Hansen is planning to be arrested today at the Keystone XL protest. He told Climatewire that if President Obama approves the pipeline, he "was just greenwashing all along, like the other well-oiled coal-fired politicians."

Liner notes: Ask Umbra on ditching garbage bags

What if making more waste just isn't your bag? Ask Umbra gets trashed to find out.

Greatest fear, greatest hope

This was originally published by High Country News’ Writers on the Range syndicate. Thanks for their permission to reprint it here. Last month, three little girls, ages 8, 5 and 2, and their mother, were killed in a Wyoming flash flood that washed away their van. It was the kind of torrential downpour climatologists predict […]

Climate change has made New Yorkers more vulnerable to Irene

A new map shows that climate change-related sea-level rise has boosted the number of people living in areas vulnerable to storm-surge flooding from Hurricane Irene.

Waiting for Irene, and remembering Katrina

One of the shocking things about the flooding of New Orleans was how predictable it was. Now, New York City is staring down the barrel of a loaded gun named Irene, and failure to adequately prepare for it could lead to the kind of devastation seen after H

Friday music blogging: Andrew Bird and the Muppets

An album of classic Muppets songs covered by indie rock artists ... sounds like an idea out of a dorm room bong session. And by that I mean awesome.