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Goldberg grapples with the big question

Both Matt and Ezra have commented on this question, quoted approvingly by Jonah Goldberg from a reader email:

If Al Gore were to be convinced that global warming WAS a natural phenomena, would he be so worked up about it?  I don't think so, yet the consequences would be the same.

Let's address this in three ways.

1. Would it make a practical difference if global warming were natural? Would it change our response? Of course. I don't know how to put it any more simply than I did in this post:

What if the world cared about sustainability as much as soccer?

Over the last few weeks, much of the world has clustered around TVs, watching World Cup rivals fight for the right to hoist what may be the ugliest trophy in sport. Inevitable arguments have broken out over who ought to win, and who invented “the beautiful game.” As we head toward the final match this […]

An Incandescent Truth

Just change your dang light bulbs already If efficient, low-energy lighting were installed all around the world, global energy costs could be cut by nearly a tenth, says the International Energy Agency. The technology is widely available, would curb light pollution, and, according to a new IEA report, could keep up to 16 billion tons […]

All’s Wells That Lends Well

Big banks sign on to stricter environmental and social guidelines Big financial institutions are increasingly talking green — and some of them might even mean it. Forty-one lenders from around the world, including Citigroup and J. P. Morgan Chase, have signed on to the three-year-old Equator Principles, which call for investment projects to avoid harming […]

Acid Vicious

Coral and other sea critters suffer as CO2 makes oceans more acidic By the end of the century, oceans may no longer be livable habitat for coral, a coalition of U.S. scientists warned yesterday in a new report. The world’s oceans absorb about a third of the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide, which these days is a […]

Dinosaur Farts?

Alberta premier doesn’t like Al Gore talkin’ smack about oil sands Al Gore has pushed the buttons of Ralph Klein, premier of Canada’s conservative Alberta province (think North Dakota, but even norther). Interviewed in the latest Rolling Stone, Gore disparaged Alberta’s oil-sands industry: “For every barrel of oil they extract there, they have to use […]

Good news! Green views renew you! EBN reviews the how-tos.

Environmental Building News has an article up on integrating biophilia into green building practices.

Biophilia is a notion popularized by biologist E. O. Wilson. It describes humans' innate affiliation for the natural world. Biophilia attempts to define "the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life."

The thrust of the article is that biophilia is an underdeveloped element of green building practices, but one that has significant potential benefits.

Words fail me. Well, not really.

So Andrew Sullivan says global warming is like the WMD "debate" before the Iraq War:

It occurs to me that the global warming debate is not unlike the WMD-terrorist debate, except the sides are reversed ....

In both cases, however, the evidence is complicated and hard to pin down with absolute certainty. We know we are at much greater risk now from Islamist terror than we were a decade ago - but measuring how much, and where from specifically, is very hard. Equally, we know that global warming is real, but whether it has reached or will soon reach a dangerous tipping point is not a given.

Riiight. I can think of a number of ways that Iraq and climate change are similar, but that isn't one of them. Let's count the ways:

Coral reefs face growing threats

Coral reefs just can't catch a break. It's not enough that deep sea corals are ripped from the ocean floor by destructive trawling -- now shallow water corals are contending with global warming.

High sea temperatures stress coral, making them susceptible to disease and premature death. Last year, up to 40 percent of coral died in abnormally warm seas around the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the stage is set for the same to happen this year. Yesterday, ENN reported that Caribbean Sea temperatures have reached their annual high two months ahead of schedule.

Umbra on old clothes

Dear Umbra, I promise that I searched the archives before emailing you, so hopefully you haven’t already answered this question. I’m wondering about the best way to dispose of old clothes and shoes — the tired, well-loved, and much-worn items that thrift shops really don’t want. I wear my clothes until the bitter end, and […]