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The Aye Yi Yi of the Storm

NOAA predicts active hurricane season this year This year’s hurricane season, which starts June 1, will produce up to 10 hurricanes in the North Atlantic, up to six of which will be Category 3 (winds over 111 miles per hour) or above, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted yesterday. NOAA thinks it will be […]

Tierney on Gore

I'm genuinely puzzled by John Tierney's column ($) on Gore and An Inconvenient Truth.

He doesn't deny that global warming is real, or that it's a significant challenge. His problem with Gore seems to be that Gore recognized the danger too soon, before "non-evil economists" were convinced. According to Tierney, Gore's downright crazy to ascribe the lack of social consensus on climate change in part to "evil oil companies and Republicans." You see, up 'til now it's just been good-natured, good-faith debate. Some people -- non-evil people! -- well, they just weren't convinced.

Mm-hm.

The second ding on Gore is that he "avoids any call to action that would cause immediate discomfort, either to filmgoers or to voters in the 2008 primaries." Tierney's in a snit that Gore didn't specifically advocate Tierney's pet solutions: a gas tax and nuclear power.

But Gore spent only about the last ten minutes of the movie on solutions. (Thus the much-discussed quote.) He didn't do anything but gesture to the Socolow-Pacala paper on stabilization wedges. There were no specific policy recommendations, comfortable or uncomfortable.

What doesn't occur to Tierney is that Gore might not have needed to spend so much time on basic climate science if boneheads like Tierney hadn't taken so long to board the clue train. It appears one can never convince Americans too much.

Anyway.

Gore's been right about climate change, for a long time. Tierney's been wrong about it, until just recently. Rather than snickering about Gore's "likeability," perhaps Tierney should be aspiring to Gore's veracity. Oh, and moral courage.

2 sexy 4 this blog

Prince was named "world's sexiest vegetarian" by PETA voters.

I have mixed thoughts about PETA, but not about Prince. Pass me another Purple Rain.

Mallaby on Gore

The Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby -- a member in good standing of the more-centrist-than-thou Beltway club -- thinks the Bush administration is making Al Gore look good:

Six years ago, Bush narrowly defeated Gore, apparently because voters thought he'd be a nicer guy to have a beer with. But after years of governmental bungling, of willful indifference to truth, the national mood seems to be changing. Voters have seen that nice guys can screw up. And technocrats with diagrams and charts have never seemed so interesting.

Elite opinion, which was so devastating to Gore's 2000 campaign, seems squarely behind him this time around.

Update [2006-5-22 15:28:21 by David Roberts]: Via Kevin Drum, Margaret Carlson makes a similar point.

Move Thyself: Deer avoids car, hits man on bicycle

D'oh, a deer ...

In other bicycle news, it seems the Chinese masses are increasingly trading in their classic cruiser-style Flying Pigeon bikes for cushy mountain bikes and higher tech road bikes (oh, and cars).

Not a huge surprise, as an increase in affluence often leads to a transportation upgrade. But nonetheless, the state-owned bike company has noted the changing demographics of its riders as well as a dip in sales.

Big greenish taxi

As gas prices have risen, hybrids have become a substantially better buy than they once were. Still, it depends on how much you drive: the more miles you log, the more money a hybrid can save you.

So I'm heartened (though far from shocked) to see that cab companies are starting to realize this. Cabbies drive a lot. That's their job, after all. And higher gas prices mean that they're starting to run up enormous fuel bills, which means that switching to hybrids offers an immediate benefit to a cabbie's bottom line.

Orwell would be proud

Rep. Richard Pombo today introduced his latest bill to open ANWR to energy exploration called ... wait for it ... the "American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act."

Unbelievable

From Congressional Quarterly (subscription):

House Republican leaders this week plan to push at least one energy policy hot button during floor action before departing for a week-long Memorial Day recess: authorization to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

What's it going to take? A stake through the heart? A silver bullet? Perhaps environmentalists should consult this guide.

No.

Today, when asked whether he would see Gore's new movie, Bush said, "doubt it." I doubt it too. Who needs truth when you've got truthiness?

But Bush also said something more insidious:

... in my judgment, we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects, and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and, at the same time, protect the environment.

Should we "set aside" the question of whether human activity is driving climate change? I think not.

A while back, I wrote a post on this subject. I never put it up -- I was thinking of making it into an op-ed or something, but I never got around to it. Anyway, it's relevant to this question. So I've put it below the fold.

CEI and the bounds of the socially acceptable

Speaking of the CEI ads, I've been giving them some thought.

I worry that they will be a flash in the media pan, and quickly fade from memory. That would be a lost opportunity.

Here's a suggestion for a group that has the money and will to organize (maybe MoveOn): Don't let this drop. Find out every single corporate sponsor of CEI, contact them, and ask them if they agree with the content of the ads. If they agree, publicize the hell out of it. If they don't agree -- as Ford claims not to -- ask them why they're supporting an organization that's muddying the waters on this vital issue. If they refuse to respond, publicize the hell out of that.

Our development director questioned me about the Ford post. He said (paraphrasing), surely Ford shouldn't be held accountable for everything CEI does. After all, organizations that fund Grist don't necessarily agree with everything in our pages.

On most issues, I would agree. If Ford had disagreements with CEI over, say, accounting regulations, but supported their other work, fine. Reasonable people differ about accounting regulations.