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Dear Sir, you know about that global warming thing?

U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) yesterday sent the following letter to President George W. Bush, asking him to commit to working with the new Congress to pass meaningful climate change legislation in 2007.

The Senators are the incoming chairs of three important Senate committees on global warming: Boxer in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; Bingaman in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and Lieberman in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The senators' letter to the President follows:

‘Consensus is collusion’–Is climate science maturing, or should we reach for our tinfoil hats?

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

Objection: More and more, climate models share all the same assumptions -- so of course they all agree! And every year, fewer scientists dare speak out against the findings of the IPCC, thanks to the pressure to conform.

France to slap tariff on U.S. over Kyoto non-compliance

For the non-nerds out there, that's "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Everybody's gotta pay sometime.

Which brings me to this: The European Union may apply a tariff on nations that don't sign on to Kyoto, or who fail to meet their obligations. This would include America and Canada.

Is a smart guy

Earlier today I had a nice long chat with Terry Tamminen, who until recently was Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental advisor.

It's safe to say that Tamminen is one of the most influential figures in environmental policy in the country, though he's not widely known. Through his friendship and professional association with Schwarzenegger, he helped develop a whole range of innovative policies, including the biggie: AB 32, California's greenhouse-gas reduction bill. (See also the low-emissions-vehicles regulations that got the state sued by automakers.)

What the Democrats’ win means for the sustainable-food movement

After being sentenced to death on specious grounds in 1915, the pro-union agitator and singer Joe Hill delivered a bracing message to his supporters: “Don’t waste time mourning, organize!” The bums may be gone, but don’t get too giddy. Photo: iStockphoto Under more celebratory circumstances, Hill’s formulation doesn’t seem quite right; after helping purge so […]

Time for the feds to step in

My previous post about CyberTran described a mass transit system that is highly energy efficient compared to conventional transit, and is inexpensive enough, and supports small stations well enough, to work in suburbs as well as cities.

Some readers were disappointed to find that CyberTran is not currently running anywhere -- that it is still experimental.

Hope you weren’t planning a protest

If there's one creature that animal-rights activists should not try to save (and should instead attempt to quietly euthanize), it's a lame duck.

The House of Representatives on Monday passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, extending current federal law to specifically criminalize not only interfering with "animal enterprises" -- a commercial or academic enterprise that uses or sells animals or animal products for profit, food or fiber production, agriculture, research, or testing -- but also interfering with organizations that do business with "animal enterprises," such as their lawyers or insurance companies.

As AP says:

Violators could be sentenced up to a year in jail for economic damages of less than $10,000, and up to five years in prison if a threat produced a "reasonable fear" of bodily harm. Prison sentences of up to 10 years could result if someone is actually injured.

33 writers. 5 designers. 6-word science fiction

I was reading the November issue of Wired this morning on the bus and read this clever series of 6-word science fiction stories. I thought you'd enjoy these:

Umbra on environmental busybodies

Dear Umbra, A friend recently said I should “walk the talk” by replacing my synthetic clothes (purchased before I saw the environmental light, as it were) with new things made entirely of organically grown fibers. I thought about this, and it seems wasteful to get rid of clothes that still fit and look nice, just […]

Wacky and weird

The Schwinn-Shank Redemption
While the use of prison labor is questionable in any context, about 20 inmates in a South Dakota state penitentiary are reportedly happy to be taking part in a program that puts them to work fixing up old bikes for disadvantaged kids. No word in the media on whether the program is voluntary or not, but given prison wages, there's probably not much difference in compensation. Now if only there were a program to teach the kids how to stay upright in all that wind.

The other kind of bicycle flasher
Police in Clinton Township, Pa., have been on the lookout for an alleged serial flasher who has been accused of cycling past women and revealing, unsolicited, his naked cycling self. Faced with multiple reports, authorities have been getting serious, if misguided.

Police detained several men matching the suspect's general description. But none turned out to be the suspect, police said.

Look, another guy on a bike! Pervert!