Climate Climate & Energy

Sky Islands getting crispier

Just when you thought Arizona couldn't get any hotter, right? Yesterday's NYT article on how that state's Sky Islands, the uniquely biodiverse plateaus, are changing due to higher heat regimes is borne out not only by news of such destructive fires but also by daily observation on the ground. A friend who works for the Sky Island Alliance in Tucson says her staff, while out ripping up roads or monitoring wildlife corridors, has been noticing that species are disappearing from islands, being squeezed out by the changes.

It really brings home that no matter what kind of activism we're involved in on a daily basis, whether it's knee-deep in a watershed or coordinating youth development efforts in inner-city neighborhoods, we've all got to turn out with our friends and families and Step It Up in April. It all comes back to the climate.

The perils of cooking with greenhouse gas.

The BBC has issued a pretty clear-eyed report on food production and climate change, the podcast of which you can download here. The report makes no brief for sustainable ag, but it does cogently question industrial ag’s ability to “feed the world” as climate change saps water tables and population continues to grow.

And Then There Were Nine

Rise in sea level could affect one in 10 people worldwide If you currently live in Colorado, Nebraska, or South Dakota, you can stop reading this story now. But if you are one of the 634 million people worldwide living in a coastal zone, be advised: you may be in deep trouble. New research using […]

Granma Muses

Castro breaks editorial silence to berate U.S. over biofuels policy Say you’re a legendary communist leader sidelined by a secret illness. You’re eager to break your months-long silence with an editorial, and you’re looking for just the right topic. Do you choose … your prognosis? Your island nation’s health? Heck no. If you’re Fidel Castro, […]

Biofuels force the choice on us

Lester Brown says the diversion is already happening:

Unintended consequences?

According to this article there is a downside to fluorescent light bulbs; they have small quantities of toxic mercury that are hard to remove. Goes to show that sometimes working on one dimension of environmental quality exacerbates another. It's also why I don't like the idea of government mandates in favor of fluorescent bulbs.

Wheee!

More alarmism from scientists: By the end of the century up to two fifths of the land surface of the Earth will have a hotter climate unlike anything that currently exists, according to a study that predicts the effects of global warming on local and regional climates. And in the worst case scenario, the climatic […]

Wrestlemania for the future of the planet

El Hijo del Santo to the rescue!

Someone tell Inhofe that after a worldwide search we've finally found his doppelganger. If the money is right and Don King doesn't want too big a cut, I don't see why we can't put together a pay-per-view event and settle this thing once and for all.

Use Google Maps to simulate rising sea levels anywhere in the world

Somehow this isn't as much light-hearted fun as Sim Earth.

Human impacts, Al Gore, and more

I was fortunate enough last night to hear Tim Flannery -- he of The Weathermakers -- speak here in Toronto to a crowd of businessmen and lawyers. Favorite moment:

Questioner: Mr. Flannery, do you think or wish that Al Gore should run for President?

Flannery: He's already done it, and what's more, he won!

Levity aside, Flannery delivered an excellent talk and specifically explained why, exactly, the atmosphere is so much more vulnerable to human disruption than something like the ocean.