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On Your Mark, Get Set, Kyoto!

Kyoto gets a kick-off date After nearly seven years of doubt and often rancorous debate, the Kyoto Protocol has an official start date: Feb. 16, 2005, at which point the treaty will become binding. The 90-day countdown period begins tomorrow, thanks to the handover of official documents from Russia to the U.N. at a ceremony […]

Kyoto Kicks In

Mark your calendar -- the U.N. has designated February 16, 2005, as the day the Kyoto Protocol comes into force. The Russians gave U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan their official notice of ratification today in Nairobi where the Security Council is meeting.  Read more from BBC or the U.N.

Shuffling is afoot in Bush administration’s environment-related slots

There’s so much talk of hirings, firings, retirings, and resignations at environment-related agencies in the Bush administration that it feels almost as though a whole new regime were coming in, when in fact we’re likely to get four more years of the same policy aims. Ann Veneman (left) and Spencer Abraham. Photo: USDA. Departing at […]

Because he said so

So, this month a panel of 300 scientists put out a report saying that global warming is most definitely underway, and that "human influences, resulting primarily from increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor."

But stop the presses! U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ala.) says the scientists are wrong. Not that he's read the report.

Scientists who helped put together the report briefed members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

Stevens, who is to chair the committee starting in January, agreed that climate change is a serious problem and said he looked forward to reading the report.

But he said he does not accept the conclusion the scientists reached: that the driving force behind warming is people burning coal, oil and natural gas, the fuels that produce greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Stevens must have great confidence in his scientific credentials to cast doubt on the work of 300 climate specialists.  Curious about those credentials, I visited Stevens' bio page. Hm ... a mid-century law degree ... and then in congress since 1964.  Nope.  Nothing about science.

But he does acknowledge that "we need to take some action."  So what's the action?

Stevens' spokeswoman, Courtney Schikora Boone, said the action Stevens is taking is to fund more research about climate change.

UPDATE: Turns out it's not just Stevens; the entire Alaska delegation is demonstrating a heretofore undetected bent for science.

"My biggest concern is that people are going to use this so-called study to try to influence the way and standard of living that occurs within the United States," Young said.

"I don't believe it is our fault. That's an opinion," Young said. "It's as sound as any scientist's."

Young's opinion, you see, is just as valid as any scientist's, regardless of any "so-called study." The mind just boggles, doesn't it?

Umbra on the environmental impacts of soy

Dear Umbra, I’m interested in learning more about the treatment and genetic modification of soy and how prevalent this is. I think a lot of folks choose products such as soy milk because they think they are making a better choice for the earth, as well as themselves. I think this is an overlapping issue […]

Whacked by The West Wing

OK, am I the only enviro ticked off that last night's West Wing episode, even while highlighting the need for tighter fuel-economy standards, portrayed renewable-energy advocates as querulous, petty, bickering twits pushing immature and drastically flawed technologies?

Oh, and am I the only enviro who kinda likes the word enviro?

Greens and big biz

"Green movement is big business," declares the headline of a Reuters article this week.  

The concept recalls Mac Chapin's ruckus-causing article in World Watch on conflicts of interest at the three big conservation groups, as mentioned by Geoff last week. (A fascinating read, by the way -- I may never think of the Big Three the same way again.)

Dude, the Powder Is Nuclear Today!

Extreme microbes may aid nuclear waste disposal Researchers with the Department of Energy, hip to the latest trends, have developed genetically manipulated “extreme microbes” that reportedly survive entirely on Red Bull and communicate via appropriated skater slang. Ah, we kid. But there are some pretty bitchin’ microbes out there. Able to survive in earth’s most […]

Better Red Than Dead

Annual “Red List” of threatened species says lots of species are threatened The World Conservation Union released its annual Red List of threatened species today, and it ain’t pretty. Some 15,589 species — 7,266 animals and 8,323 plants and lichens — are in danger, up more than 3,000 from just last year. Nearly an eighth […]

I’ll Have a Side of Hash Browns

U.S. joins 13 other nations in plan to reduce methane emissions Fourteen nations agreed yesterday to a non-binding agreement to curtail methane emissions by trapping the gas and using it as a relatively clean-burning fuel before it’s released into the atmosphere. Methane is the second most common heat-trapping greenhouse gas — albeit a distant second […]