Latest Articles
-
CEI at it again
Oh brother. CEI is at it again with a "special web-only bonus" titled Al Gore: An Inconvenient Story.
Electric_Penguin over at Hugg.com sums it up nicely:
CEI has created quite the moral dilemma for themselves. They are condemning Al Gore for generating dramatically more Carbon Dioxide emissions than an average person while traveling around the world giving speeches on global warming. You can't condemn Al Gore for traveling and contributing to Global Warming when you are denying Global Warming exists. Either "CO2 is life" or Global Warming exists and the balancing act between to little and too much begins.
-
Americans and Climate Change: Leveraging the social sciences I
"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.
The final chapter of Part I makes a simple but vital point: If communicating climate change effectively is the goal, it makes sense to call on the expertise of social scientists, whose work is devoted to studying the social dynamics in which communication takes place. Today, the intro.
-
Duh, China’s big
Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel is an excellent read, and a great resource for environmentalists. Even better is his second book, Collapse. In it, he looks at how the collapse of civilizations has often been precipitated or exacerbated by environmental stress. One of his most stunning chapters is on China, and the vast ecological problems it faces thanks to its breakneck development.
How vast? Howzabout 10% of GDP?
China's pollution problems are costing the country more than US$200 billion a year, a top official said yesterday as he called for stronger action to balance environmental protection against economic development.
Environmental damage is costing the government roughly 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product, estimated Zhu Guangyao, deputy chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency. China's GDP for 2005 was US$2.26 trillion.This probably explains why China abandoned it's attempt to develop a "green GDP" measurement earlier this year -- if the Chinese submitted their economy to a full accounting, it would have almost certainly shown negative growth for the last several years.
-
Gore/Lohan feud
Caught Gore on Leno last night. Jay compared the efforts to stabilize the ozone layer to global warming. It's a pretty good analogy: International cooperation combined with some new technology has gotten that particular environmental disaster under control. Maybe there is hope after all. I think Gore has realized that the American entertainment industry may be more powerful than the military industrial complex.
Gore mentioned his feud with Lindsay Lohan and that he might consider a nude scene in his next movie if "the script had integrity and it advanced the story."
-
Interview with Lawrence Bender
There's an interesting interview with Lawrence Bender, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, on TruthDig today.
-
No nukes is good nukes
Someone -- I think Bart? -- sent me to a paper by David Fleming called "Why nuclear power cannot be a major energy source."
I just got done reading it, and as far as I'm concerned it is devastating to the pro-nuclear argument. Game over.
The paper -- based primarily on the work of Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen and Philip Smith -- carefully considers how much uranium is left in the ground, the energy balance for the full nuclear lifecycle (including cleaning up waste), the promise of breeder reactors, and just about every other aspect of nuclear power.
The ultimate verdict: If nuclear power maintains its current contribution -- roughly 2.5% of the world's energy -- it can continue for about 75 years, under ideal conditions. If we ramp it up to supply 100% of the world's electricity, it could last about 6 years, under ideal conditions. And there are no ideal conditions.
In other words, nuclear power simply cannot bridge the coming energy gap. More than anything, it serves as a kind of techno-totem, allowing people to cling to the illusion that technology will save us and we won't have to alter our lifestyles.
Anyway, read it. Bookmark it. Link to it. Send it to your friends. The nuclear illusion needs to be put to rest once and for all.
My favorite part of the paper is the helpful summary at the end. Here it is:
-
Americans and Climate Change: Setting goals IV
"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.
Today's bit is brief and fun. It's about setting a different kind of target: Targets for changing the attitudes of the public.
-
From Inconvenient to Indiana
Don’t hate the narrata, hate the game Much to the surprise of playa hataz, An Inconvenient Truth — starring the allegedly “stiff” Al Gore — is doing gangbuster box office, boasting the industry’s highest per-screen average. This is driving certain parties nuts, leading to incoherent screeds and comparisons of Gore to both Goebbels and Hitler. […]
