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Gale, Gale, Gale

Gale Norton, former Secretary of Interior, takes job with Shell Oil:

Cycling team is first carbon-neutral pro sports team in U.S.

Congratulations to the Kodak Gallery Pro Cycling Team presented by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. for having a ridiculously corporatastic name becoming the first carbon-neutral U.S. professional sports team. The KGPCTpbSNBC will offset 100 percent of team-produced carbon emissions in 2007, including travel, support crew, and team members' home electricity use. Team marketing director Rob O'Dea has the sound bite:

This program allows our team to take a leadership position in raising the bar of personal responsibility, and in creating awareness of the new tools that exist for individuals and organizations to take tangible steps to improve the air we breathe. We're glad to have a chance to offset the pollution we create by supporting the development of clean, renewable wind power.

Thanks for that, Rob.

‘Historically, CO2 never caused temperature change’–Not so

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

Objection: In the geological record, it is clear that CO2 does not trigger climate changes. Why should it be any different now?

Answer: Given the fact that human industrialization is unique in the history of planet earth, do we really need historical precedent for CO2-triggered climate change before we accept what we observe today? Surely it is not far-fetched that unprecedented consequences would follow from unprecedented events.

But putting this crucial point aside, history does indeed provide some relevant insights and dire warnings.

Looks good

File under "why elections matter." After listening to this, I was struck by two things:

1. It feels great to know that even though I might not agree with everything the Democrats are going to do with respect to the environment, at least now there are people in charge with the public interest in mind.
2. With the Democrats' current momentum, if they can win the presidency in 2008 and increase their Congressional majorities, the next 3-5 years could be truly monumental for environmental progress. This could be an era like the early 1970s that defines a generation.

Arizona State and other universities plug sustainability

The Christian Science Monitor brings word that Arizona State University will launch a School of Sustainability in January -- the first of its kind in the U.S. ASU leads a pack of similarly green-minded schools, some of which have begun to spend in the millions wooing specialists, building green, and offering sustainable curricula.

Sign up for a Grist phone survey

Have you signed up to take part in Grist's phone survey? Inquiring ears want to know: What would you like to see from Grist in the new year? More of this, less of that? We did a rootin'-tootin' job on this, but that left something to be desired? Think we're great? Think we're mediocre? Just need someone to talk to? Get on the horn!

He foresaw the problem

Former U.S. President Gerald Ford died yesterday at 93.

At the bottom of this post is a long section on energy from Ford's 1975 State of the Union speech. In it he noted that America's surplus oil -- and its attendant ability to stabilize world oil prices and prevent the emergence of a petroleum cartel -- had vanished in 1970; we had become net importers of oil. He worried about our loss of energy independence and recommended a crash course in energy production.

You will recall that President Carter took those concerns seriously and put in place programs to address them.

But the cartel that formed after we lost our energy independence, OPEC, quite enjoyed our dependence. Rather than use it to hurt us, it plied the world market with cheap oil, upon which floated enormous U.S. prosperity. Ronald Reagan abandoned all pretense of fighting for energy independence and instead cruised on cheap-oil-driven economic growth to "Morning in America."

From the U. of Arizona

The U. of Arizona put together an impressive seminar series on climate change this past fall. There were seven talks by different U of A professors, covering almost all important aspects of the "climate change problem." The talks are now online.

I have a video iPod, and I downloaded the seminars and watched them during my recent trip to the AGU meeting. It's a worthwhile way to pass a 4-hour plane trip. If you want to learn more about climate change, I recommend you check them out. (They also have audio-only versions.)

‘Geological history does not support CO2’s importance’–Just not true

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

Objection: Over the last 600 million years, there hasn't been much correlation between temperatures and CO2 levels. Clearly CO2 is not a climate driver.

Answer: While there are poorly understood ancient climates and controversial climate changes in earth's long geological history, there are no clear contradictions to greenhouse theory to be found.

Livestock’s long shadow

The NYT has an editorial today about the UNFAO's new report on the environmental degradation caused by increasing numbers of livestock. Money factoid: More greenhouse gases are produced by livestock than the entire global transportation sector.