Climate Climate & Energy

The Evolution Will Be Pint-Sized

Some small animals evolving to adapt to climate change, study finds As we humans cling to the status quo while it floats down the river toward a global-warming waterfall (ahem), smaller animals are getting on with evolving. New research in Science identifies heritable genetic changes in some small wildlife that increase their chances of survival […]

Spore Losers

Climate change could make pollen rise and allergies worse Perhaps you’ve heard the argument that a rise in carbon dioxide levels is a good thing, because CO2 helps plants grow. Well, says Hah-vard’s Paul Epstein, “It is the opportunistic plants like poison ivy and ragweed that thrive.” That’s right, ye allergy-stricken: More CO2 means more […]

Adaptation redux

Roger Pielke Jr. has an overheated post up today wondering why I don't care about the suffering of "millions, perhaps billions" of people around the world adversely affected by climate. Oy. I hesitate to reply, but here goes.

Champagne vineyards threatened by radioactive contamination

Global warming isn't the only thing threatening wine. In France, groundwater less than 10 km from the famous Champagne vineyards has tested positive for radioactive contamination, caused by a nearby leaking nuclear waste dump:

"We have been told for decades that nuclear dumpsites will not leak and that the best standards are being applied. In reality the dumpsite in Normandy is a disaster, and radioactivity is already leaking from the dumpsite in Champagne," said Shaun Burnie nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace International. "The authorities know they have a problem in Champagne already, with mistakes in the design. This is only the beginning of the problem, the bigger picture is that France has a nuclear waste crisis out of control that is threatening not only the environment and public health but also the economy of the Champagne region."

Clearly, there are some promises that just can't be kept. I wonder if Champagne is iconic enough to influence public opinion about nuclear power. In the meantime, bringing a Geiger counter to the next New Year's bash would be a cool party trick ...

And the Sand Played On

World’s deserts will become more desert-y, says U.N. Happy World Environment Day — we got you some bad news! As climate change progresses, desert temperatures will rise up to 12.6 degrees F by the end of the century; rainfall in most deserts will decline by up to 20 percent; water will become scant, or too […]

Wining and Declining

Global warming screwing up wine country Bad news for oenophiles: Global warming is messing with wine country. Wine grapes are highly temperature-sensitive, and if the globe gets much hotter (which smart folks say it will), famed wine-producing regions like France’s Burgundy and California’s Napa Valley may lose optimum climate for their grape varieties. Already, warmer […]

Adaptation and political context

The U.S. should be doing more to prepare for changes in the climate that are already inevitable. As many folks have pointed out, even if we completely stopped emitting CO2 tomorrow, the gases already in the atmosphere will yield climate weirdness 30 to 40 years from now.

Adaptation -- the term of art for these sorts of adjustments -- is necessary. And it probably doesn't get the attention it should in policy discussions.

Nevertheless, I'm leery about discussing it too much. Why? Because there's more to policy discussions than policy discussions. There's also the political and cultural context in which such discussions take place. Focusing purely on policy details without taking the larger context into account is not a virtue, as some would have it. It's irresponsible.

Kevin Drum recently made this argument with regard to another subject, namely Iran. Should progressives spend more time criticizing Iran's repressive, authoritarian regime? Well ...

Under the Radar

FAA shuts down work on proposed wind farms The Federal Aviation Administration has shut down work on at least 15 Midwest wind farms pending … wait for it … more research. Last year, Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), a critic of the Cape Wind project planned for Nantucket Sound, added an amendment to a military spending […]

Why we’re not Brazil

BioD already mentioned it in comments, but I thought I'd draw above-the-fold attention to this post from Robert Rapier on The Oil Drum.

One often hears that Brazil is the model for biofuels usage: They've come close to achieving energy independence by creating ethanol with sugar cane. As Tom Daschle and Vinod Khosla said in their recent NYT op-ed, "Brazil has it figured out; why can't we?"

Rapier explains exactly why:

Appy Days Are Here Again

Ancient Arctic was balmy, a discovery that worries climate scientists Fifty-five million years ago, the average temperature of the Arctic was a balmy 74 degrees, according to research published today in Nature. The data was gleaned from the first significant sample of sea-floor sediment ever taken from underneath the thick ice at the North Pole. […]