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Blair keeps warning of warming

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is keeping up attempts to push climate change at the next G8 meeting. His latest high profile statement is a by-invitation piece in the Dec. 29 issue of The Economist. He sets out the rationale for tackling climate change and African poverty and health challenges as Britain assumes the chair of the G-8 this month.

I fear he goes off track in dealing with the United States, however, when he says, "Through the G8, we have the opportunity to agree on what the most up-to-date investigations of climate change are telling us about the threat we face."

It is not about the science with the Bush administration. It is hard to conceive of an IPCC consensus that would change minds on Pennsylvania Ave. It will be the states, the private sector, and/or the faith-based communities that produced a changed policy. International conferences to debate what we know and what we don't know just offer more opportunities for opponents of action to emphasize scientific uncertainty.

Blair needs to adopt the winning U.S. election strategy of getting out the bases -- red states, big money, and the faithful.

David Helvarg, marine activist, answers questions

David Helvarg. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I’m president of Blue Frontier Campaign. What does your organization do? What, in a perfect world, would constitute “mission accomplished”? Blue Frontier works to strengthen America’s ocean constituency by building unity among seaweed (marine grassroots) activists at the local, regional, and national levels by providing tools […]

Umbra on wind farms

Dear Umbra, I have been reading lots in the media lately about wind farms. As a supporter of green energy, I would obviously like to see a lot more of them and have long believed that people who oppose them are just another example of the “not in my backyard” mentality: they want a constant […]

Tsunami response

If you're wondering what to do about the Indian Ocean tsunami, here is some advice I trust from my friend Vicki Robin of the New Road Map Foundation and Conversation Cafe: make a donation to the Sri Lankan grassroots development movement Sarvodaya. (Back when I studied such things -- a dozen or more years ago -- I regarded the organization as among the best in Asia.)

Vicki passes along a note from a friend of hers named Sharif Abdulla:

BINGOs talk back about World Watch article

The debate rages on. World Watch magazine's new issue contains a whopping 16 pages of letters [PDF] in response to Mac Chapin's controversial article "A Challenge to Conservationists" [PDF], which accused big international conservation NGOs of trampling indigenous people's rights as the groups work to put ever-larger chunks of land under protection.  

“Climate variability”

Global warming, climate change, global climate change -- so 2004. The hipsters are now calling it "climate variability." Or, well, at least a few Bush admin spinmeisters are hoping they will be 'ere long.

In Buenos Aires earlier this month, when they weren't busy stymieing progress on Kyoto, U.S. reps were trying to get folks jazzed about the fresh coinage "climate variability." So much more pleasing to the ear than those stilted, passe climate phrases of yore. After all, variety is the spice of life!

Look forward to a lot of spicy weather ahead.

Top 100 science stories of 2004

Discover Magazine's January 2005 issue features a list of the 100 most important scientific discoveries and developments of 2004. The number one story? Global warming. Called "Turning Point," the magazine's three-page feature says that climate change evidence became overwhelming in 2004, and recalls many of the year's headlines, including Russia's signing of the Kyoto Protocol, the premiere of the blockbuster movie The Day After Tomorrow, and Schwarzenegger's vow to defend California's limits on CO2 emissions. It claims hopefully that "it's only a matter of time before the rising tide of evidence washes over the last islands of resistance in Washington." Well, I don't know about that, but greenies should feel heartened to know that a good number of environmental stories are represented in the top 100. Perhaps someone out there is listening.

Going local

The Bush Administration's plan to put greater control of National Forests into the hands of local forest rangers is provoking cries of outrage from the environmental movement and Democrats, as reported by many publications just before Christmas. I share the discontent but, unlike many of my mainstream environmental associates, I am attracted to one rather un-green reordering of public-lands governance. Just not this one.

Is “Clear Skies” really so ghastly?

David Whitman, in a compelling article in the Washington Monthly, argues that Bush's Clear Skies initiative is getting a bum rap from enviros. (He also argues that the much-vilified Jeff Holmstead, the Bush appointee who heads the EPA's Office for Air and Radiation, doesn't wholly deserve his anti-green rep.) Whitman asserts that the bill would do some real good, and debunks the widely repeated claim that the proposal would permit more pollution than the Clean Air Act. (Turns out there was more than met the eye to that bit about a secret EPA PowerPoint slide asserting that Clear Skies would make compliance cheaper and easier for utilities.)  

Earthquake

Our hearts go out to all those affected by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in South Asia. For more info, visit Wikipedia. For links to firsthand accounts, visit WorldChanging. For ways to help, visit this blog.