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CO2 — but not the sun — ‘is significantly correlated’ with temperature since 1850

The lead author of a new study ($ub. req’d) says Inhofe’s office mischaracterized her work with its blaring headline, “Study: Half of warming due to Sun!” Far from supporting Inhofe’s denialist fantasies, the research, led by Anja Eichler, senior scientist at the Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute, is actually one more piece of observation-driven analysis that […]

Doubts Chu’s ease of transition from the ‘academic world to the administrative world’

You might think someone who had utterly failed in his or her job might have learned enough humility to avoid criticizing others attempting a similar job. But not Bush’s first EPA administrator, Christie Todd Whitman, who told MSNBC: As for Steven Chu, Obama’s apparent choice to head up the Energy Department, Whitman expressed concerns over […]

It’s ‘premature’ to declare the death of an agreement in Copenhagen

[I’m going to reprint dispatches from the climate talks in Poland by Center for American Progress senior fellow Andrew Light, which were first printed in WonkRoom.] It goes by various names here: “The chicken and egg problem,” “The ping pong problem,” mostly though it’s just “The American problem.” All are various terms for the same […]

Curt Ellis responds to the ads promoting corn syrup …

I was really happy to see this article. The ads which cast doubt on corn syrup-related health problems are so bad that even Karl Rove must be shaking his head. (Besides, who takes a popsicle — let alone one popsicle for two people — on a picnic?)

The EPA and FDA send last-minute gifts to the meat industry

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. —– Living near confined-animal feedlot operations (CAFOs) is no bowl of cherries. CAFO operators pack thousands of animals into tight spaces, concentrating their waste. The smells they release are intense and foul — and probably dangerous. According to one recent […]

Bush appointee reportedly holding up transition efforts at NASA

Transition efforts at NASA are not going smoothly, reports Robert Block of the Orlando Sentinel: NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned. […]

Gore embraces 350 ppm target at Poznan

[This post is from Bill McKibben in Poland. For background on the science behind the 350 target and the challenge it poses see here and here.] Al Gore gave the international climate talks in Poznan a new set of marching orders this afternoon, declaring that old targets for fighting global warming had been made obsolete […]

Foodie lessons from Dwight K. Shrute

A brilliant blogger has assembled a list of food and frugality tips gathered from Dwight K. Shrute, assistant to the regional manager at The Office‘s Dunder Mifflin paper company. Below, a few gems: DWIGHT SAYS: “My grandfather left me a 60-acre working beet farm. I run it with my cousin Mose. We sell beets to […]

A carbon tax has efficient sticks, but what about carrots?

I’m finding the carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade debate unsatisfying, for several reasons. Here I’ll try to get at just one of them. In broad terms, you want greenhouse gas policy to do two things (well, more than two, but let’s focus): penalize the emission of GHGs and reward the prevention of GHG emissions. Sticks and […]

Will the Obama administration be the first to seriously regulate genetically modified food?

  Will Obama buck the trend and regulate GMOs?   On Nov. 11, Austria’s Ministries for Agriculture and Health released the results of a long-term study [PDF] of genetically modified organisms. A widely used strain of GM corn, they found, appears to decrease both birthrates and the size of offspring in mice — and the […]