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So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Thank You

Grist winds down for a holiday break Before we say toodle-oo for the holidays, we must extend a ginormous and heartfelt thank you to all of the readers who donated during our recent fundraising appeal. We raised more than $62,000, considered spending it all on organic eggnog, then wisely decided to invest in more — […]

Particulate Shot

EPA sued over particulate standards The U.S. EPA has gotten itself sued once again this week, this time by 13 states and the District of Columbia that are pissed off about lenient soot-emission standards. The backstory: EPA analysis has found that reducing soot emissions by a relatively small amount could prevent 24,000 premature deaths a […]

Cease Fire

Coast Guard will cease target practice at Great Lakes In a win for lovers of safety and the environment, the U.S. Coast Guard has withdrawn a plan to conduct machine-gun firing practice in the Great Lakes. After much complaining from boaters, Canadians, congressfolk, local mayors, and other sane people opposed to toxic lead bullets flying […]

This Rocks Our Sox Off

Boston will require new large buildings to meet green building standards Hooray, Boston: The city is soon expected to require that all new construction projects of 50,000 square feet or more meet green building standards. Projects will be required to follow at least 26 of about 70 suggestions for green design and construction, similar to […]

‘Volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans’–Not even close …

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: One decent-sized volcanic eruption puts more CO2 in the atmosphere than a decade of human emissions. It's ridiculous to think reducing human CO2 emissions will have any effect.

Answer: Not only is this false, it couldn't possibly be true given the CO2 record from any of the dozens of sampling stations around the globe. If it were true that individual volcanic eruptions dominated human emissions and were causing the rise in CO2 concentrations, then these CO2 records would be full of spikes -- one for each eruption. Instead, such records show a smooth and regular trend.

(image from Global Warming Art)

Chinese food quality a concern as 2008 Olympics approaches

In 2000, when Beijing made its bid for the 2008 Olympics, it promised to get all cleaned up if it could please, pretty please, be the host. Its wishes came true, but China's goal of throwing a green Olympics seems ever out of reach. To quote ourselves:

China has promised to throw a "green" Olympics in Beijing in 2008 -- but simple livability may be the megacity's bigger challenge. Beijing has 15.2 million inhabitants; if current trends hold, that number could grow to 21 million by 2020. Gridlock is endemic, as the number of cars more than doubled in the past six years. Already-bad air quality is deteriorating. The city's water supply is so overtaxed that some experts are calling for rationing. City officials are racing to replace thousands of old, stinky public toilets, while over a hundred construction projects related to the upcoming Olympics are hurtling forward. Critics blame decades of bad urban-planning policy for the city's problems. "In the past, we never thought of the capacity of resources," said Huang Yan, Beijing's deputy director of planning. "We only focused on development." She's introduced a master plan that includes the bold goal of rendering Beijing "a city suitable for living."

He’s staying atop his committee

I keep forgetting to make a note of this: it looks like, contrary to rumors of impending drama, the Senate's favorite troglodyte, James Inhofe, will be keeping his perch atop the Senate Environment Committee after all. His dispatches from the minority office over the next two years should be ... entertaining. Like watching a quaint old black-and-white movie.

‘Mars and Pluto are warming too’–No they aren’t — and what if they were?

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: Global warming is happening on Mars and Pluto as well. Since there are no SUVs on Mars, CO2 can't be causing global warming.

Answer: Warming on another planet would be an interesting coincidence, but it would not necessarily be driven by the same causes.

The only relevant factor the earth and Mars share is the sun, so if the warming were real and related, that would be the logical place to look. As it happens, the sun is being watched and measured carefully back here on earth, and it is not the primary cause of current climate change.

Congress gives parting nod to offshore drillers, but also to renewable-energy industries

Dark clouds on the horizon — and drilling rigs too. Photo: iStockphoto The GOP-controlled 109th Congress went out with a bang — that of drills hitting sea bottom. In the waning hours of the final legislative session earlier this month, Republican leaders pushed through a provision to open up 8.3 million acres on the outer […]

It’s disheartening

... can be found here (hat tip to pollster.com).

Here's the important result:

American voters tend to see Global Warming as a serious problem but are divided as to whether it's caused by human activities or long-term planetary trends.

This is important because: