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This climate hero may be more of a Forrest Gump

I've been waiting for someone to write this article.

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is rightfully lauded for kicking off the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which now has 326 mayors committed to helping their cities meet Kyoto emissions targets. It's a BFD, and Nickels will earn a small place in history for it.

Still. It's always been my sense that the initiative was cooked up by clever and persuasive staffers in the mayor's office, and that Nickels was, in Forrest Gumpian fashion, in the right place at the right time. I don't think he's really taken a concern about global-warming emissions to heart.

Children, anxiety, and global warming

I found this post over on the Climate Ark blog.

Hello,

My 8-year-old daughter has just come running to me in a flood of tears. Why? Because she thinks the world is going to end sometime soon and it's the fault of me and, to a lesser extent, my generation. That's why. Why does she think that? Because she takes it for gospel that over bearing boffins like yourself know more than ordinary folk like me. Does it make you feel good? Making an eight-year-old girl with a mouth brace bawl her little eyes out?

I really empathized with this father. There's more:

Adventures in Agriculture

U.S. gets approval for ozone-depleting pesticide, despite international objections Pursuing its goal of world destruction (mwahaha!), the U.S. won approval to continue using and making a pesticide banned under an international ozone treaty. The decision, which countered the recommendation of the treaty’s technical committee, allows a 5,900-ton methyl bromide exemption in 2008 — less than […]

Thou Shalt Not Passage

Canada, U.S. debate shipping rights in legendary Northwest Passage Remember when we said Canadians were needy? Well, get a load of this: they want to maintain control over shipping rights in the legendary Northwest Passage, just because they own it. The nerve! With climate change melting Arctic ice, the Atlantic-to-Pacific byway — long traveled seasonally […]

Under the Macroscope

Protests, international conference focus on U.S. climate stubbornness How many delegates does it take to convince the U.S. to address climate change? No one knows, but the 5,000 gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, for the latest U.N. climate conference are giving it a shot. The two-week event opened today with remarks from Kenyan Vice President Moody […]

Share your green awakening

A good friend of mine has just turned green. But it wasn't The Great Warming or An Inconvenient Truth that did the trick, but Robert F. Kennedy's Crimes Against Nature.

I bring it up because this friend is well-read, intelligent, and politically liberal; he has certainly been exposed to all the same evidence that won other people over long ago. And yet until now, the only time the word "environmentalist" issued from his mouth was when he was teasing me about being one. RFK's book -- with its contrast of political and corporate greed on one hand and democracy-driven environmental stewardship on the other -- spoke my friend's language ... and now he won't shut up about tragedies against the commons and government-subsidized pollution.

Should we worry about sudden climate shifts?

We hear a lot about climate "tipping points" in the news. You may very well be wondering what a tipping point is and whether it's something to be concerned about.

To understand a tipping point, imagine that you're sitting in a canoe and you start to lean your body over one side. The canoe will slowly rotate (I think the nautical term is "list") as you lean ever further -- until, that is, you lean just far enough, and suddenly the canoe flips over, sending you into the water. You've just encountered a tipping point.

The worry is that the climate will slowly warm as CO2 is added -- until we cross a tipping point, at which point the climate abruptly shifts into a new and possibly very different state. If this happens, it would likely be a disaster of Biblical proportions, unleashing unimaginable suffering and hardship.

‘Antarctic ice is growing’–Well, probably not, but even if it were, we are not off the hook

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

Objection: The Antarctic ice sheets are actually growing, which wouldn't be happening if global warming were real.

Answer: There are two distinct problems with this argument.

First, any argument that tries to use a regional phenomenon to disprove a global trend is dead in the water. Anthropogenic global warming theory does not predict uniform warming throughout the globe. We need to assess the balance of the evidence.

Does biology work against religious sentiment?

Here's an excellent piece by John Derbyshire at National Review explaining his (lack of) religious views.

What does it have to do with environmentalism? Well, check out this part:

Umbra on window manufacturers

Dear Umbra, We are looking into replacing some of our windows. Any thoughts on which companies are more environmentally friendly, not just in the energy-efficiency of their windows, but in the manufacturing process (Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, recycling materials, etc.)? Lyell Slade Concord, Mass. Dearest Lyell, Let’s warm up on this topic: Windows in residential […]