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A muddled message on solutions

This country's public discussion about global warming desperately needs to move beyond the tiresome back and forth about whether it's happening. We need to start discussing solutions -- in many ways a more complex and difficult topic.

CNN's Lou Dobbs offered just such an opportunity last night. He had on three climate scientists: Michael Mann, Gavin Schmidt, and Alan Robock.

Watch what happens. Here's the first opportunity:

DOBBS: Well, if you all as leading scientists, with your best science, your best minds working in the field, agree that there is global warming and that greenhouse gases emissions are responsible for all or part of it, what can we do, Gavin, to deal with the issue?

In other words: Enough about science. We believe you. What should we do?

From Wine to Wood

Nice jugs When winemaker Carlo Rossi looks at a pair of jugs, he sees art. His new furniture collection — or “functional pieces of pure jug leisure” — includes a Chardonnay Chandelier, a Cabernet Couch, and a Sangria Sound System. For this oenophile, it’s all about “jug shui.” Photo: carlorossi.com The “Greatest Generation” thing was […]

Mr. Gore goes to Hollywood

You know global warming's time has come when Al Gore and climate change are the cover story of Entertainment Weekly.

Varmint Cong

Organic farmers in Colorado ask state to blast rodents out of their holes They say life imitates art, but until now, life had stubbornly refused to imitate Caddyshack. Behold! Organic farmers in Colorado have asked the state Division of Wildlife to look into controlling prairie dogs and other burrowing critters by … blowing them up. […]

Breaking: There are skeptics

A fine piece of reporting from Gannett News Service, tipping off its readers to the fact that there's a small group of skeptics who don't believe global warming is a threat.

In case readers missed that info in every single other piece of vapid he-said she-said transcription that passes for journalism on this subject.

Lawn Gone

Homeowners rethink their water-sucking lawns A “delawning” movement is sprouting up around the U.S., as a handful of homeowners switch from resource-intensive grassy green expanses to drought-tolerant, native, and/or edible gardens. “It’s about shifting ideas of what’s beautiful,” says Fritz Haeg, an L.A. architect whose Edible Estates project transforms front yards into fruit and vegetable […]

Big Brother Knows Best

House bill would keep states from setting tough toxics rules House Republicans are pushing legislation that would keep states from setting standards for pesticides and health-threatening industrial chemicals that are more stringent than federal regulations. If passed, the bill could nullify a California ban on brominated fire retardants, for example, and restrictions in San Francisco […]

Oil hits $78/barrel

Ouch.

Talking point: Climate nonlinearity

Global warming will not necessarily mean a slow, steady rise in temperature, to which we can gradually adjust. Climate history contains sudden, lurching reconfigurations. Says the IPCC, as quoted by the U.S. EPA, "complex systems, such as the climate system, can respond in non-linear ways and produce surprises."

We might be able to adapt to an incremental warming trend, but such a surprise -- e.g., the shutdown of the thermohaline circulation -- would be likely be catastrophic.

What are the chances of a sudden shift? No one knows for sure. Low, we think, for now, probably. Such things are, almost by definition, difficult to predict with any certainty. What we do know is that we increase the probability of such a catastrophe with every ton of CO2 we put in the atmosphere.

We are rolling dice with humanity's future.

Eddie Vedder to shame you with his environmental giving

Pop-superstars-turned-moody-hasbeens-turned-pop-superstars Pearl Jam recently pledged to donate $100,000 to groups that focus on climate change and other environmental concerns, as a way to offset their carbon emissions. Many of the recipients are, not surprisingly, in the Seattle rockers' home state. (Although there's at least one local nonprofit they seem to have missed ... what were they thinking?)

While the "carbon neutral" concept is trendy right now, Pearl Jam has followed this model for donations before.

Pearl Jam has aided other green causes in the past, including donating money to preserve a Madagascar rain forest to atone for environmental damage wrought by its last tour.

Vedder also recently gave an extremely large tip to his hair stylist to atone for the Mohawk hairdo he sported for their last album.