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A bipolar solar disorder

Last night, Nova tackled an interesting, less-discussed danger from pollution: global dimming. It hasn't gotten that much attention (outside of Grist, of course) but Nova presented a very compelling and rather harrowing picture.

Basically, while the earth has been getting warmer due to greenhouse gases, it has simultaneously been getting cooler due to a layer SP50 sunblock made up of smog particles in the air. As a result, the globe is like a guy who drinks fifty cups of coffee a day and then pops five Valium and proudly declares he's "in the zone."

It's easy to imagine how the distraction faction would use this to cast doubt on the whole idea of global warming. "What's with these egghead scientists? Is the globe getting warmer or colder? Make up your mind!" Well, we know it's getting warmer. So here's the scary part: the dimming of the sun has been masking the full effect of global warming, which may be much further along than we previously realized. We've been reducing the particulate smog that causes dimming for the past few years, and we're starting to see an accelerated shift. Once this guy gets off the Valium, he's going to be on one hellish caffeine kick.

An eco-pentathlon puts students to work on Earth Day

As your Outlook/Blackberry/secretary administrative professional has no doubt alerted you, Saturday is Earth Day: a celebration of all things green and, um, earthly? A celebration not lost on the youth of today. And since lists of the best ways to help the planet on Earth Day are all the rage these days -- hell, even Vanity Fair's green issue has one -- I've decided to compile one of my own.

Or rather, I'm reprinting one put forth by the University of Montana - Missoula. And this isn't just any list of five things you can do to help the planet. This is an eco-pentathlon! I'm serious! It appears to be a tradition at the school. A series of service events are set up at various locations on or near the campus on Earth Day, and eco-pentathletes ride their bikes from one event to the next, working about an hour at each.

Here's the line-up for Saturday's events:

• 9 a.m. - noon: Help clean up the Clark Fork River.
• 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.: Work on prairie restoration at Mt. Sentinel.
• 1-2:30 p.m.: Dumpster dive and sort recyclables.
• Noon - 4 p.m.: Build a bike at the Festival of Cycles.
• 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.: Do farm chores (make compost, plant trees) at the PEAS farm.

Whew! What a (Earth) day!

Know of any other cool Earth Day related events happening at a campus near you? Post 'em in comments!

A climate-change compendium

Dear Umbra, I know you don’t make up questions, but in this instance I think it’s acceptable. Could you suggest a collection of resources on climate change? I think it might help us all get better educated on this vital topic. Even if they don’t spend an hour of their Earth Day sifting through the […]

Gas prices

Since everybody else on the planet is commenting on the issue, I suppose I should as well:

No, high gas prices are not the result of oil-company price gouging or nefariousness. It's the market balancing supply and demand (i.e., you, dear consumer).

Yes, politicians -- mostly Democrats -- attempting to substitute oil-company bashing and demagoguery in the place of real energy proposals deserve only snorts of derision.

No, it would not be a good thing for gas to be cheaper. It's been artificially cheap in the U.S. for a long time, but it's inevitably going to rise. Get used to it.

That is all.

Green roof of doom

Wal-Mart is building a store inside Chicago city limits with a 67,000 square foot green roof. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's plants do not absorb rainwater or prevent runoff. They only emit eeeevil. You've been warned.

(via TH)

GreenScanner

Have you ever been shopping and wanted to know how environmentally friendly a particular item actually is? Me too, and I have been meaning to propose that someone create the very database that GreenScanner has now developed.

Global warming wedding-crashers?

I was thinking a bit more about a point David raised yesterday: While it's dandy that groups outside the fold of the mainstream environmental movement, from sportsmen to evangelicals, are expressing concern about global warming, how do we know wily conservatives won't be able to dance their way out of ambitious and necessary reforms with toothless rhetoric, more industry subsidies, and "fake solutions"?

It's a hugely important question, and I won't pretend to have a crystal ball in my cubicle. But I strongly believe it's a question that greens and progressives must find a way to answer -- otherwise our best-laid plans and proposals will remain just that.

The Bush administration has mastered the art of Orwellian naming ("Healthy Forests," etc.) and bait-and-switch rhetoric (we're "addicted to oil" -- let's reshuffle research budgets without committing to advancing the ball). That we know. The question is: How's the sales job going? Better or worse than last year, or four years ago?

We Hope This Goes Better Than the Whole Dot-Com Thing

Internet bigwigs are putting their money on cleantech Some people know a good investment when they see one: Steve “Founder of AOL” Case, Bill “Founder of Microsoft and Stoopid Rich” Gates, and John “Early Investor in Amazon and Google” Doerr. Now they’re seeing in green technology what they once saw in the internet, and they’re […]

Maybe Steps

Shell and ExxonMobil power gas platform with wind and solar The cognitive dissonance! It hurts! A new gas platform in the North Sea will be run entirely on wind and solar power. The tiny (26 by 26 feet) platform, co-owned by Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, cost about $143 million to develop and was built […]

Things That Go Lump in the Night

Coal makes a comeback As oil prices rise, coal will emerge as the fuel of the future. This depressing assessment is the collective judgment of international power company executives, expressed in a recent survey. Interestingly, the same execs cited greenhouse-gas emissions as one of their top concerns, and assumed there would be a push to […]