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Toujours Gas

France contending with bovine-source greenhouse gases France’s 20 million cows account for 6.5 percent of the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Researcher Benoit Leguet of the Climate Mission of Caisse des Depots, a state-owned French bank, contends that bovine belches produce about 28.6 million tons of globe-warming gases annually, primarily methane and nitrous oxide. Cow poop (or […]

What Pricey Glory

Carbon sequestration a pricey but feasible way to curb global warming Carbon sequestration — capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions — isn’t a cheap or easy solution to global warming, but it’s doable. A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that with major investments, up to 40 percent of CO2 emissions […]

Arctic You Glad We Didn’t Say Banana

Arctic ice cap is melting fast, say scientists The Arctic ice cap has shriveled to its smallest size in a century; at this rate of shrinkage, the summer cap may vanish by 2060. Researchers who compiled the data say the process appears to have become self-sustaining: As ice melts, there’s more water, which absorbs more […]

Strife After Death

“Death of Environmentalism” authors offer follow-up Among a series of stories on environmentalism’s fortunes in the latest issue of The American Prospect is “Death Warmed Over” by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, a follow-up to their notorious “Death of Environmentalism” essay of last year. In their latest treatise, argues Grist‘s David Roberts, they condescend to […]

Next Up: Jerry Bruckheimer on Defense Policy

Novelist Michael Crichton testifies before Senate on climate change As part of his ongoing attempts to defy parody, Senate Environment Committee chair James Inhofe (R-Okla.) convened a hearing yesterday on climate science, featuring as an “expert” witness … a novelist. Yup, it was Michael Crichton, whose latest thriller State of Fear casts global warming as […]

Crichton testifies before Congress

Not always. And definitely not yesterday at the Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearing on the role of science in environmental policy making.

Such an important topic demands the opinions of distinguished scientists and policy makers, right? Wrong. Headlining the hearing was none other than science fiction author Michael Crichton, whose latest book, State of Fear, takes on the science of global warming and the evil environmentalists behind it. (Read Dave's review here.)

I couldn't face watching it, but the brave scientists at Realclimate.org did. Their summary is worth a read.

Oil poster

Forget pin-up girls and rock bands. The hip new thing for dorm room walls is the oil poster, and handily distilled summary of historic oil production and its inevitable decline. Chicks dig it!

Highs and lows of sweet, sweet wonkitude

Enough about The Reapers. How's the rest of the American Prospect environment package?

Much of it, sadly, is deathly, wonkily boring. In particular, Carl Pope ... dude. What is this pap? It's so bland, so politician-y, it takes genuine concentration even to get through it. You've written better stuff on your blog, for chrissake. This from Ross Gelbspan and this from John M. Meyer are similarly forgettable.

But there are many bright moments. Bill McKibben could write about what he ate for dinner and make it engaging, but I found the conclusion of this piece on global warming particularly on-point:

‘Death’ authors getting a little too cocky

The American Prospect has a big package of stories in the latest issue called "The Environment: Death and Rebirth." In it, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus -- authors of the infamous "Death of Environmentalism" paper -- have a follow-up called "Death Warmed Over." It's meant as a response to critics of the original and something of a look ahead.

While it, like the original, contains nuggets of insight, the bulk is taken up with strawman bashing, bad analogies, and an entirely unwarranted degree of smug self-satisfaction.

Reducing gasoline consumption

With gasoline prices high and rising, it's worth revisiting an old post by our very own Clark Williams-Derry, which makes a simple point: if you want to reduce gas use, the best route is not more efficient cars but more efficient cities. Give it a look.