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Condi in a Tesla

I give you Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, riding in a Tesla electric car: More gape-worthy Tesla pics here. More about Rice here. (thanks LL!)

Are Americans smart enough to learn from Australia’s crisis?

What if there was a country that was like America in many ways, such as the obstinate refusal of its government to acknowledge that pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment is simply a way to commit suicide faster, a fondness for beer, and an enormous capacity to live the high energy lifestyle as if there was no tomorrow?

Could Americans learn anything from it?

Good stuff at WC

Two good posts on Worldchanging I’ve been meaning to call out: Jeremy Faludi makes the important point that control technologies are just as important as efficiency technologies. Control technologies allow us to control energy systems in a more fine-grained way, using only what we need — think occupancy sensors for lighting or continuously variable transmissions […]

Friday music blogging: Mark Ronson

Two of the best pop albums of the last year are Lily Allen‘s Alright, Still and Amy Winehouse‘s Back to Black. What do they have in common (besides cute, clever female singer-songwriters, that is)? Producer Mark Ronson. The guy’s a mad pop genius. As it happens, Ronson puts out albums of his own. The latest […]

More Gore

Here’s Al Gore on David Letterman, Thursday night. Bizarrely substantive! Part one: Part two:

On ‘scientific reticence’ and sea-level rise

Sea level rise of 5 meters in one century? Even if most scientists will not say so publicly, that catastrophe is a real possibility, according to the director of NASA's Goddard Institute Of Space Studies.

It may seem like I single Hansen out for recommended reading. But that's only because he:

• is the nation's top climatologist
• writes prolifically
• speaks with unusually bluntness for a scientist
• has been more right than just about any climate scientist

He has written a terrific piece for the open-access Environmental Research Letters on "Scientific Reticence and Sea Level Rise":

I suggest that a "scientific reticence" is inhibiting the communication of a threat of a potentially large sea level rise. Delay is dangerous because of system inertias that could create a situation with future sea level changes out of our control. I argue for calling together a panel of scientific leaders to hear evidence and issue a prompt plain-written report on current understanding of the sea level change issue.

I could not agree more. In researching my book Hell and High Water, many leading climate scientists spoke to me candidly off the record that they share Hansen's fear. Fortunately, more and more are speaking out.

Hansen is especially concerned that sea level rise is nonlinear:

Funny

Al Gore was on The Daily Show on Thursday. I thought he did quite well — and the crowd was nuts for him. Here’s part one: And here’s part two:

A few random notes

For Gristers in Houston, you might be interested in this event.

A good friend of mine, Emmett Duffy, has started a new blog called The Natural Patriot. Emmett is a marine scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. Check out his entry on what it means to be a Natural Patriot -- and add this blog to your RSS reader.

Wind-loss, wind-gain

On the heels of last week's apparent defeat of the proposed Hoosac Wind project in mountainous Western Massachusetts due to environmental (wetland) concerns, Massachusetts' new governor has put his voice behind further offshore wind projects. The timing is interesting.

Continuing the debate

Recently, in the post "Global Warming and the vision thing," I criticized the use of numbers in advocating policies, arguing instead on behalf of concrete images. Jon Warnow, a Step It Up 2007 organizer, responded to my post, and I thought it would be appropriate to give him the benefit of a separate post, along with my reply: