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Catch up post: replying to some comments

As promised, this is a catch-up post, wherein I belatedly reply to various comments.

Animals on diet and exercise regime

The number one new year's resolution for Americans is to lose weight, which is no surprise considering that 60 million of us are obese. But 16 days into this year, chances are many of us have already traded in our granola for Krispy Kremes or asked for our movie popcorn with extra butter.

Such is not the case at Sea World, where walruses, dogs, manatees, and pigs are counting calories and doing crunches. See for yourself.

Of course, the best weight-loss regimen would be living in the wild oceans. But that might be difficult for the dogs and the pigs.

Word

Let’s all gather round and give Jeff Goodell a rousing huzzah for using his megaphone to spread the righteous message that (say it with me!) coal is the enemy of the human race. Specifically, Goodell, writing in Rolling Stone, covers the electric-power industry’s mad rush to build as many coal plants as possible before emissions […]

California to reduce carbon from fuels, 2006 hottest year in Lower 48, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Flexing His OPECs Haul Out the Halter Tops Frosty the No Man Enemy at the Gates Dude, You’re Gettin’ a Conscience Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Even Stevens? Risky Business Flock of Siegel From Pad to Worse

If you know what we mean

There’s an interesting story in The Atlantic about Craig Venter, the guy who successfully sequenced the human genome (using private capital). Now he’s working on engineering microbes designed specifically to convert biomass directly into ethanol. He also has grander, longer-term plans to have them produce other kinds of fuels like natural gas from sewage sludge […]

Big biz gets in line

Eighteen major corporations, including power companies and companies that manufacture power-generation equipment, come together to call for a concerted global plan to fight climate change, built around the following nine principles: A switch-over to a low-emitting economy is a necessity A global solution is needed A common, global goal limiting climate changes is needed Greenhouse-gas […]

Listen and learn how the game is played

We’re constantly told that any slip of the tongue or exaggeration on climate science can destroy our credibility. If we ally ourselves with respected scientists like Kerry Emanuel and Tom Wigley who believe there is a strong connection between hurricanes and climate change, we open ourselves to charges of alarmism, hysteria, and demagoguery. In the […]

It gets at what matters

A looong time ago I posted on bringing better psychology research into the climate debate. Others have also posted occasionally about the psychological dimensions of environmental issues (here and here and here).

In the last few days there were a couple of items, unrelated to environmental issues (on the surface at least), that reminded me why I love this stuff so much. See below for details ...

Centrist pundits never tire of getting duped by this administration

Despite occasional flashes of insight, Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby is by and large a typical left-leaning beltway pundit, meaning you can reliably expect one of two thoughts from him: "both sides suck and I’m smarter than either" or "I’m a liberal but dirty hippies are stupid." Yesterday’s column, subtitled "A Bush U-Turn On Climate […]

It’s a’comin’

There’s a big, big debate brewing about "geoengineering" — messing deliberately with the earth’s climate to tweak it to our liking. This article in The Economist is a decent primer. You can already see the shape of the debate emerging, and it’s strikingly similar to the nuclear debate. A massive, unproven, problem-ridden, techno-utopian solution is […]