Climate Climate & Energy

The latest beneficiary of biofuel subsidies: industrial feedlot operators.

So far, a huge amount of the government’s lavish support for biofuel has ended up on the bottom line of Archer Daniels Midland, the king of industrially produced, environmentally ruinous corn. Now another type of model corporate citizen is in line for a cut of the action: huge-scale confined-animal feedlot operation (CAFO) players like Tyson […]

It muddles the science and policy debates together

The darling of the the climate blogosphere for the last two days is an article by Andy Revkin on the silent middle ground in the climate debate. Since I am nothing if not a blogosheep, I felt compelled to follow the pack and weigh in.

The problem I have with the article is that it confuses two separate debates, one scientific (is climate change real?) and one value-based (what should we do about it?). By putting these two issues into the blender, the article confuses rather than clarifies.

Let's consider the first question: is climate change real?

Wal-Mart pushes CFLs

Wal-Mart has has started a new campaign to push compact fluorescent light bulbs in their massive retail stores, according to an article published in the New York Times yesterday. Though only a reported 6 percent of homes use CFLs currently, Wal-Mart hopes to sell 100 million of the bulbs each year by 2008. “The environment […]

It’s All Sarovar

After years of controversy, India completes massive dam project One of the world’s longest-running social and environmental campaigns is sleeping with the fishes as of Sunday, when the last bucket of concrete was poured on the Sardar Sarovar Dam in the Indian state of Gujarat. The project, initiated nearly 20 years ago, diverts India’s fifth-largest […]

But Will They Wear Poodle Skirts?

International Polar Year returns, focuses on climate-change research Happy International Polar Year! If you didn’t get us a gift yet, don’t sweat it — the fourth-ever IPY doesn’t officially kick off until March, and researchers from some 60 countries will actually poke around in the icy Arctic and Antarctic for two years. The last IPY […]

Since U Been Gone

Loss of wayward ice shelf linked to climate change, scientists say You know that part in Back to the Future where Michael J. Fox is holding his family photo, and the people in it are disappearing? And he feels faint, because he knows he’s next? That happened in a Canadian lab recently, only a lot […]

Threat Level: White

U.S. proposes listing polar bears under Endangered Species Act Maybe they saw one too many cute Coke ads, or maybe it was the court-imposed deadline. All we know is last week officials at the U.S. Interior Department proposed listing polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, in response to a suit filed in […]

Robert Novak does it on purpose

A recent Gristmill post discussed an op-ed by Robert Novak on climate change.

One argument Novak makes against environmental regulations is that they're extremely expensive. Turns out when Novak's not outing CIA agents, he's getting his facts wrong.

Novak says:

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that [the McCain-Lieberman climate bill] would reduce gross domestic product by $776 billion annually.

However, if you read the report he quotes you'll see that $776 billion is the cumulative and undiscounted cost of the program. $776 billion is not the cost per year.

The report actually says:

So says Worldwatch

So says Tom Prugh. More in the latest issue of World Watch Magazine.

‘It’s the sun, stupid’–Very bright, yes, but not getting brighter

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: The sun is the source of warmth on earth. Any increase in temperature is likely due to changes in solar radiation.

Answer: It's true that the earth is warmed, for all practical purposes, entirely by solar radiation, so if the temperature is going up or down, the sun is a reasonable place to seek the cause.