Climate Politics

Save the Martians!

GLOBAL WARMING ON MARS!

I just read the Nature paper entitled "Global warming and climate forcing by recent albedo changes on Mars," by Fenton et al.

I suspect it will make the rounds in the blogosphere in fairly short order, so here are a few things to remember about the paper.

A follow-up

My last article made the point that in fighting climate chaos, only a refundable carbon tax, one that returns revenues directly to the population, mitigates regressivity in way that benefits those hit hardest by such a tax.

It concludes by pointing out that just about everyone who pays serious attention to the problem of climate chaos concludes that carbon taxes or cap and trade systems -- methods of putting a price on carbon -- cannot by themselves solve the problem. This post will explore in a bit more detail what additional measures can help reduce emissions.

We could institute rule-based regulations in the following areas:

Another conservative attack on motives

I’m always excited when people on the right address climate change, even if they say stupid things. At least they’re starting to think about it. On National Review, Ken Green of AEI says that Gore’s carbon tax proposal is great, but the rest of his proposals are both redundant and sucky. After listing them, he […]

Good interview on climate change

Good interview with Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) in Foreign Policy in Focus this week. Gilchrest, chair of the House Climate Change Caucus and co-sponsor of the Climate Stewardship Act, was not appointed to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming last month because he refused to deny that humans are causing climate change. […]

This time, it’s personal

(Continued from parts I and II.)

Last but not least (actually, what quite literally hits closest to home!):

North America

Oh, the anticipation!

The IPCC report I’ve most been looking forward to is from Working Group III, on mitigation. It looks like drafts of that report are already leaking — Reuters has a (poorly written) rundown. From what I can tell through the muddy writing, the IPCC lays out a range of mitigation scenarios, which would run anywhere […]

A visual comparison

When the IPCC WGII summary was released last week, there were media reports on last-minute clashes between scientists and political types — the former pushing for the original strong language, the latter pushing to water it down. George Monbiot’s column yesterday addressed the subject, in characteristically outraged tones. For those interested in the details, DeSmogBlog […]

Gingrich and Kerry face off on climate, except they don’t really face off all that much

John Kerry and Newt Gingrich squared off on climate change this morning. The result? Gingrich committed to the statement that something needs to be done and distanced himself from partisan brethren like Inhofe. He also dropped a line about a need for some “green conservatism.” The transcript: KERRY: I’m excited to hear you talk about […]

Another One Writes the Bust

Court rules against Bush administration’s fish-protection plan The Great Judicial Smackdown of 2007 continued this week, with a federal appeals court ruling that the Bush administration’s plan for “protecting” fish on the Northwest’s Columbia and Snake rivers violates the Endangered Species Act. The feds had claimed that the rivers’ hydroelectric dams could be made safe […]

Do They Even Have Roads There?

Vermont court hears landmark vehicle-emissions case This week, the U.S. state with the fewest registered cars will take the driver’s seat in the race to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions. A Vermont court will hear a landmark case on whether the state’s adoption of a stringent California emissions law is legal. Under the Clean Air Act, states […]