While visiting my stepson and his wife in Manchester, England, over the holidays, I spent a good part of each gloomy, damp morning waiting for the sun to come up (at 8:25) by reading After the Ice, Steven Mithen’s exquisite book about what we know of human development when the great ice sheets began their retreat 20 millennia ago. Mithen is no global warming skeptic. If the climatologists are right, he believes we may be in for a change in human ecology as great as that affecting our distant, pre-agricultural ancestors when the ice backed off the continents and rising oceans inundated coastlines throughout the world. Or far more so, considering there were at most 5 million of them, and there are at least 6.5 billion of us.
Mithen’s not alone, obviously. Two decades ago, you could scarcely get anyone outside a few worried scientists and some corporate shills to say anything about climate change. Now, it’s a rare day if you don’t hear at least something on the subject, even though there are still naysayers, and a lot of us rank-and-filers remain in denial when it comes to personal lifestyles. For instance, my wife, stepdaughter and I put more than a thousand kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere on our 5290-mile flight across North America and the North Atlantic.
It should come as no surprise then how many Diaries focus on global warming in this first Eco-Diary Rescue of 2007. And many of the Diaries that don’t explicitly focus on global warming have it as an undercurrent.
But, before we begin, a big round of applause to Elise, the godmother of action Diaries, who has put together some Eco-Action links for your attention:
Environment, Energy & Wildlife Issues:
-- A hat tip to Jerome a Paris for linking us to an organization called Step It Up. Visit their site to learn how you can take local action to help stop global warming! You can read more by checking out Jerome's diary on the subject, April 14 - day of climate change action.
-- From the League of Conservation Voters:
Congress is back, and its first 100 hours are critically important for moving us toward sensible energy solutions. Under Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, the House will vote on a bill to repeal billions of dollars in Big Oil subsidies and tax breaks. New funds collected would be reinvested in clean, renewable energy.
Sign the petition. Ask your representative to take this step to reduce our dependence on oil, help the environment, create new jobs, and reinvigorate the American economy.
-- From Rainforest Action Network:
Texas utility company TXU hopes to build 11 new coal-fired power plants, but first it needs to raise $11 billion to finance them. The plants are part of a growth strategy that could make TXU the biggest single corporate greenhouse gas polluter in the United States.
Merrill Lynch is one of the banks helping TXU underwrite this project. We need you to call and tell them to stop helping TXU destroy our climate.
Call Merrill Lynch's Chief Executive Officer E. Stanley O'Neal and ask him to stop helping TXU build these dirty coal plants. There's a link with further info so you can make an informed phone call.
-- If you haven't heard of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), it's an initiative that is sponsored by the logging industry. You can read more about it at Don't Buy SFI. You can also learn there about how to ensure that you aren't contributing to the destruction of our forests and learn how to buy products that are certified by the independent Forest Stewardship Council(FSC), which requires "that wood and paper products come from forests that meet strict environmental and social standards." Check it out and do your part to help prevent forest destruction :-)
-- From Campus Progress:
The Campus Climate Challenge is a project of more than 30 leading youth organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Challenge unites young people to organize on college campuses and high schools to win 100% Clean Energy policies at their schools.
Click here to read more and to find out how you can start or participate in your own local group to win prizes from MTV.
-- From Union of Concerned Scientists:
For years, ExxonMobil has been undermining science and casting doubt on the facts about global warming—just like the tobacco industry tried to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking.
On January 3, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a new report documenting ExxonMobil’s use of Big Tobacco tactics to delay meaningful action on global warming. It’s time to call on the new Congress to reject ExxonMobil’s disinformation campaign. Tell your senators and representative to eliminate billions of dollars in tax breaks for major oil companies and support bills that ensure reductions in global warming pollution.
Please make your letter personal by adding in your own thoughts and concerns. Every letter makes a difference, but customized letters have the greatest effect!
Normally, the Eco-Diary Rescue is a one-week affair, but since so many Kossacks actually spent time away from their computers during the holidays, I’ve dug back at bit farther to retrieve some Diaries you probably missed while returning gifts or arguing with Aunt Reba about the surge in Iraq.
On Christmas – what a trouper! – jillian dropped down the chimney with some Environmental Stories to Unwrap. This week she talked up Salsa Verde: Thinking of a recipe to feed the trolls? Well, not exactly. It's the new environmental movement in Los Angeles headed up by a hero you might not have heard of...until now...the OTHER Antonio to know about in LaLaLand - Antonio Gonzalez.
In a spectacular essay, Butter to Biodiesel: Building Bridges With Rural Americans, monkeybiz, a now-urban Kossack who in the past mucked out stalls and tossed down bales, revisited a childhood haunt: "My parents used to take me on the county farm tour every year. As I fed the cows cornhusks, I heard my parents warning me to appreciate it, because all of the farmland would be gone one day. Now, the farmland of my childhood grows McMansions, each development featuring one lonely stone-walled farmhouse surrounded by faux-Tudor, faux-Spanish, and faux-Colonial monstrosities. But last weekend, I carried on the family tradition with a visit to the Pennsylvania Farm Show, which calls itself the nation’s largest indoor agricultural gathering and stretches across 25 acres. At the entrance to the main hall, right where you can't miss it, is an 800-pound butter sculpture of Ben Franklin peering at the Liberty Bell – it's impressive enough by itself, but is even more so because it will be rendered into biodiesel. And it says so right on the exhibit. The piece got me thinking: What does a nice, urban dKos reader like me have in common with a crowd of country music-loving, gimme cap- and cowboy boots-wearing bunch of aggies like this? ... The Farm Show, now in its 91st year, is full of tradition – there will always be wiry redneck teenagers in flannel shirts and cowboy boots walking with their arms around young women in tight FFA T-shirts, always the famous Farm Show Baked Potatoes in the food court, and always pungent smells wafting out of the animal halls. But something felt different this year, green and sustainable and shared. Maybe it was the future."
Brudaimonia wrote eloquently about Smart Growth and the Future of Our Cities: A Photo Tour: "As we look back on 2006, one milestone our country reached came in October, when the US population reached 300 million. This is a vast and beautiful country with ample room for all of us 300 million (and many more), but the milestone should remind us that we can ill afford to accommodate our future population increase with more suburban sprawl. Fortunately, there is an alternative in urban planning that is growing in popularity. It preserves more open space, creates cohesive neighborhoods with distinct identities and local amenities, and reduces dependence on fossil fuels, to name just a few of its benefits. This alternative works because it combines established and time-tested principles of town planning, innovative ideas, and democratic participation in land-use decisions (i.e. people power). It is smart growth."
There was a smidgen of good news in Congress. jhritz took note that Mother Earth to enter the "Boxer" Ring - Boxer's first task as head of the Environmental Committee: "...because Barbara Boxer has been chosen to replace James 'global warming doesn't exist' Inhofe as head of the powerful Environment and Public Works Committee." Both Norwegian Chef in
Markey (D-MA) introduced Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act and NYPopulist in Hands Off...Forever? found something to be hopeful for because "...the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge may be protected for eons and eons, pending passage of legislation that was introduced yesterday. Before I got my hopes up though, I took a closer look at the situation. The bill is sponsored by Ed Markey (D-MA), a longtime champion of the environment and the Arctic Refuge in particular. He's introduced the bill many times before, but to no avail for obvious reasons. This time however it's likely to easily pass the House - where there tend to be more eco-friendly Republicans than the Senate - but will likely face a filibuster by Ted Stevens (R-Tubes) in Congress' other chamber."
Rimjob wondered about a meeting between Ford + Toyota?: "Even though the nature of the discussions isn't really known, analysts don't 'believe' these talks are full scale merger negotiations. Instead, it's believed Ford may be negotiating for Toyota's Hybrid Technology.... "
In two Diaries, Learn About Plug-In Hybrids and Petition for Plug-in Hybrids joelado urged readers to push something I’d like to own someday: "Plug-In Partnersis a national grass-roots initiative to demonstrate to automakers that a market for flexible-fuel Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) exists today. Sign the petition. ... Plug in hybrids are simply hybrid cars that get some of their energy from a household plug. Are you familiar with the Prius hybrid from Toyota? There are companies that will change the Prius so that it can travel on electricity alone for much of its normal use. Calcars (featured in the video above), Energy CS, ElectroEnergy and Hymotion all make conversion kits or will convert for you your Prius or Ford, Escape Hybrid so that it can take energy form an ordinary electric outlet. An outlet like the one you have your computer plugged into now."
meowmissy got justifiably bent out of shape about The Anti-Green Machine: "Behold, Limeads mobile advertising. It will do the following for you: Pollute the Environment; Increase our consumption of oil; Add yet another vehicle to already congested roadways. Could it be any more ironic that they chose green as the signature color for their fleet of vehicles?"
Mark H wrote another of his marine biology pieces, Marine Life Series: Filter Feeders, Part II:
(img src="http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/485/violettunicna3.jpg">
"In this edition we’ll be discussing siphons, which is the main method used by both bivalve mollusks and tunicates to extract these tiny creatures from the water column. Most filter feeders are sessile or semi-sessile, meaning that they either cannot move or, as far as food gathering goes, are severely limited in movement. Sessile animals in the oceans must have some mechanism in place to take advantage of the vast amount of floating food, plankton, suspended in the water."
The new year seems to have spurred several Diarists to make eco-resolutions of various sorts.
A Siegel asked us and himself to Imagine Life Differently -- and a New Year's Resolution: "One thing that unites Kossacks, IMO, is that we imagine a different life, a different world, a better one, a better path forward ... and we all, in our own ways, fight to achieve those visions (whether shared or not). ... In my life, From the Home to the Globe, I am striving to do my part to affect this change. Whether putting insulation in my roof, participating in The Climate Project (training by Al Gore on An Inconvenient Truth, with a commitment to give presentations in the future), or communicating to others (including on Daily Kos), I am striving to turn us away from that cliff."
He also argued in favor Pee-cycling ... and a more sustainable life ...: "With the New Year, New Scientist taught me something about my (our) bodily fluids and the implications for the waste system -- and, through that, energy, water, sustainable lifestyles, governmental budgets, Global Warming, and what I want to see in far more homes and office buildings. It turns out that pee, while just ‘1 per cent of the volume of waste water, urine contributes about 80 per cent of the nitrogen and 45 per cent of all the phosphate. Peeing into the pan immediately dilutes these chemicals with vast quantities of water, making the removal process unnecessarily inefficient.’"
In a piece that would have saddened one of my neighbors who always decorated three Christmas trees each year, BlueInARedState explained Why We're No Longer Having a LIVE Christmas Tree: "This year, my partner and I decided to forgo having a live Christmas tree in favor of having one of the artificial trees that look fairly decent. We thought of the usual reasons, such as needles in the carpeting. However, we’ve decided that we no longer will have a live tree for other reasons."
Calling All Treehuggers! featured Alegre discussing a year-long effort to reduce their impact on the planet and their bank account by some northern Californians: "Some of you may have caught my diary a while back regarding a group in San Francisco who've gotten through the last year without buying anything new. They call themselves The Compact, and over the last few weeks they've gotten a lot of press and attention. So much so that their Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thecompact/) has gotten a tremendous amount of traffic and new members (me included) over the last couple weeks. The idea is simple - to go beyond recycling; to reduce clutter and waste in our homes; to simplify our lives. By following two simple rules - #1 Don't buy new products of any kind (from stores, web sites, etc.) #2 Borrow, barter, or buy used."
gmoke explained How I Became Carbon Neutral Without Even Trying: "I looked at some of the carbon offset programs and just couldn't get my mind and wallet around the idea of paying more to be the good little greenie I want to see in the mirror. I mean ecological guilt is one thing but Mama raised me with an eye for bargains and the fine print below the bottom line. Then I remembered, for the last decade and more, I've been buying seedling trees and hives of bees from Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/ ) to support their programs around the world. According to what I've read, one tree removes about 500 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere over 30 years. I've been buying 100 trees a year."
lightnessofbeing took the Pledge – Keep the Scene Clean: "The first step in revitalizing America is cleaning up America. Once our towns and cities are clean and inviting, then we can work on beautifying and enhancing quality of life. Are you First Responder material? Ready to jumpstart the new Millennium in America? It's quite simple...bend over and pick something up."
In Environmental organizations..., LtdEdishn asked "Why should you participate? Take my personal experience as a ‘why’... The key goal, as I have discovered in fighting numerous local battles with national significance, for environmental groups is settling for some so called "acceptable" alternative. Living in South Florida, this settling is resulting in the continued destruction of the Everglades, the elimination of natural water resources, and the eventual elimination of the Everglades. ... I have never imagined myself an "environmentalist" in the sense of watching birds, or watching glaciers melting, or in the sense of fighting the destruction of rain forests and such; but, I think I am an environmentalist; because I see our world coming toward its destruction, and I am concerned. Clearly, I cannot do anything on my own, and I work more locally toward saving our environment."
coolobserver suggested Top Ten Ways to Change the World in 2007 three of which were environmentally oriented.
In The Oh Zone!, lale lamented that: "So often people don't make the connection between their vote and their own vitality. Environmental issues are so often deemed to be about trees and water bodies, not human health. While most of us know these things are all connected, keeping people thinking of tree huggers instead of asthmatic children is very politically convenient."
thirtyplus did some Planning for a Post Carbon Era: "So, back to the Post Carbon Era. It doesn’t matter why it happened, at this point – all you know is that it did happen. It may have been another terrorist attack with low-yield dirty nuclear bombs in key cities. It may have been long-range, high-payload strategic ICBMs from Russia after Putin finally popped off. It may have been that the Saudis and Iranians and everyone in the Gulf just got sick and tired of our imperialist meddling and cut off the flow of oil. It may be that China got tired of holding all our worthless IOUs and called them in at once, causing our entire economy to melt down. ...Having said all that, what does the state of a PCE actually comprise? What events will come to pass before we can truly say, ‘Yes, okay, now we are living in the Post Carbon Era?’"
Wal-Mart got a lot of attention the past couple of weeks. a gnostic asked if it’s true that Wal-Mart going solar in February? (poll): "I am loathe to give Wal-Mart any free advertising but credit must be given where due and in this case, some advertising about this could help Wal-Mart make the right decision in February when they decide whether to go solar at their stores." And
dvogel001 wrote that Walmart Trying to Go Green...GE is Going Along for the Ride: "Walmart is trying to go green by making a big play on Phillips flourescent bulbs which use as little as 1/4 of the electricity as traditional bulbs and last up to 10 times as long. So they are definitely economically sound even though they cost about 10 - 15 times as much as traditional light bulb. If you add the electricity savings and take into account that it will last 10 times longer than traditional light bulb and cost 25% of the electricity to use it over its lifetime, it is well worth the investment. But habits are hard to break after 100 years of purchasing a traditional light bulb. Even my environmentally concious wife says, ‘those damn flourescent lightbulbs make my eyes go buggy’."
A Siegel took a slightly different point of view in Walmart ... lighting a revolution for energy efficiency use?: "CFLs are a hard sell. We have a culture focused on purchase price, rather than ownership cost. CFLs cost more up front and too many don't trust the 'advertising' claims of energy savings on the bulbs' packaging -- seemingly viewing like some form of snake-oil salesmanship rather than an honest assessment. Many people -- even confronted with analysis -- reject the concept that buying CFLs makes economic sense and view them as a scam to sell things. Walmart has been testing how to get past that challenge ..."
And by ticket punch nudged Kossacks to Share your experience with CF lights (+ poll): "There's a push on, privately and publicly, to persuade Americans to replace at least one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light (CFL) fixture. For starters. But that task isn't always easy. For one thing, there doesn't seem to be a clearinghouse of practical information as to which brands and types deliver the best benefit at the lowest cost. So hey, let's make one! Here's why it matters: If that first CFL purchase is a success, it will probably lead to more. But if it's a dud, that's not just the end of a brand preference--it may the end of the project.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart nemesis JR Monsterfodder chimed in with a piece about the company’s proposal to sell more organic food in So You Still Think You Can't Afford Organic Food: "Isn't the idea of more people eating organic food what a the whole organic food movement has been about from the beginning? The lower the price, the more people will buy it, right? The counterargument, which I've made before here, is that Wal-Mart's big push into organic food will destroy organic standards."
OrangeClouds115 sought some assistance for her Recipe for America: Time for Research!: "This week I tried to start researching organic standards. My fear is that the market segment is so profitable, and now that Wal-Mart and everyone else is entering the market, they will also try to water down the standards. Already last year we saw the government weaken the standards a little bit. Once I started reading up on the subject online, I realized: We need to talk to farmers if we want to really get an accurate picture of the subject!
Wind energy guru Jerome a Paris suggested How to claim the energy battleground: "The Democrats have lots of good ideas on energy and climate change - and lots of good people pushing them. We all now about Jerry McNerney's big upset against Pombo. Harry Reid has put up a website called Energy Independence 2020. Most recently, Bill Richardson signed an executive order to cut greenhouse gas emissions in NM. Despite all this, I worry that energy policy will end up being captured by the right, because they still hold on to a major asset: their closeness to the corporate world, and, more to the point, the perception by the business world that they are more friendly to them, and thus that they are more likely to bring about less painful (for the corporations) energy plans."
steve nelson pondered Landfill Methane versus 100% Wind?: "I signed up for "Green" energy with Pepco, not realizing they also supply "Wind". Wind energy obviously comes from windmills, Green energy comes from a variety of sources: Solar, Hydro and Landfill Methane. Green Energy costs: $0.1054/kWh; Wind Energy costs: $0.1114/kWh. If i use 5704kWh in 2007 like i did in 2006, Green will cost me: $601 and Wind will cost $635. I'm more than willing to pay the extra few hundred bucks for either Green or Wind. The question is... is Wind better than Green?"
NNadir continued his efforts to persuade a mostly reluctant Kossack crowd that expanding nuclear power is a good idea in five wide-ranging Diaries – On Symmetry: Platonic Solids and Ugly Wastes, Lampblack, Coal and Carbon, Radioactive Isotopes from French Commercial Nuclear Fuel Found In Mississippi River, Profile of Radioactive Substance Associated With Nuclear Power: Tritium, Contemplating the Terrorist Who Strikes the Indian Point Nuclear Station, Contemplating the Nuclear Terrorist Who Strikes New York, Could We Negotiate the American Lifestyle if We Wanted To Do So?
El Cabrero discussed West Virginia, coal and colonialism: "For years, there was a kind of unwritten covenant with the coal industry in which they could do pretty much whatever they wanted if they provided jobs. The first part still seems operative, although the jobs are disappearing due to automation and mountaintop removal methods. (When the biblical prophet said that every mountain shall be brought down and every valley shall be exalted, I don’t think this is what he had in mind...)"
Touting his hybrid auto, ceratotherium talked about Driving green (more or less) with a hit on SUVs: "I see people driving like gas is cheap. Mostly they don't look any further ahead than the vehicle right in front of them. They race to the red light. They race to the traffic jam. They weave in and out to gain a whole car length."
In a three-part series, Churchill made what turned out to be a disputed comparison of oil consumption habits in USA vs EU-5 oil consumption, USA oil imports decr[ease] 70 % if had Spain oil consumption rate, and USA would be oil indie if had Mex oil consumption rate.
chapter1 thought we should Energize Suburbia: Tax Energy Not Property: "Many suburban towns raise essentially all of their revenues from local property taxes. This is unfortunate-- if they taxed energy use instead, they could raise the same amount of revenue while reducing energy use and the problems it causes. It is time to consider replacing property taxes, at least in part, with taxes on the use of electricity, natural gas and heating oil."
douglassmyth worried about Solar Power for Rent: "Citizenre is a corporation that claims they are just starting up, that they will build the largest PV production plants in the US and that they will rent panels to homeowners, setting them up, maintaining them--and earning whatever from rebates, etc.--while the homeowner will get emissions free power for the rate he pays for power now (paid as a rental to Citizenre), but the advantage is: the homeowner can lock in the current rate. Sound too good to be true?"
Lucky BillyZoom got to go on a great trip and return for Blogging Antarctica:
"I was fortunate enough this year to have just returned from an amazing trip to Antarctica. It's a long story, but I work in social services, so my local United Way awarded me with a professional renewal grant to use however I wanted to encourage me to not quit my job. Given the multitude of choices in this world, I chose Antarctica as it was a destination that I never thought I would be able to see on my own, since it's pretty much impossible to travel there on the cheap."
Talk about disappearing polar bears, the destruction of tradiational Inuit economies, the of ice sheets and vanishing alpine glaciers is all well and good, but global warming is no long a distant concern for Americans in the Lower 48, both geographically and in terms of time. For some of us, it’s already up close and personal:
For instance, mem from somerville wondered if we would soon see The end of maple syrup?: "This morning I am making pancakes. A friend sent me a big goodie box of stuff from Stonewall Kitchen for Christmas. It includes a bottle of Maine Maple Syrup. The back of the bottle says: Tapped locally, this delicious Grade A, Dark Amber maple syrup is a wonderful New England tradition. Yes, it is all of that. Local, wonderful, dark amber, and a tradition. But for how long?"
In a pair of simultaneously delightful and disturbing DiariesFinally got my hummingbird and Green, Dcoronata demonstrated how the changes are upon us: "I've been hunting a hummingbird on my days off. Didn't help that I had the flu for a week, and it didn't help that I was away for the Xmas weekend but after a month of trying, I got to see her this morning. In the pouring rain, she flew out of the pine tree down to the pineapple sage where she rested for a minute, before flying down to the feeders to drink. Here in the east coast, over 99% of the hummingbirds are ruby-throated hummingbirds. About 1% of all sightings are rufous hummingbirds, brown and green colored birds with a small set of iridescent feathers ("gorget") on their throats. If she and her fellow Northport LI rufous stay tomorrow, and there is no reason on earth to believe otherwise, this will be a state record for the latest in the winter they've been seen. There have been recent reports of them overwintering in PA and VA, which is an astonishing development. ... You can't fool mother nature, she's fully aware that something's up. I spoke to one of my local birding friends, and he told me they are getting reports of spring peeper frogs VOCALIZING at local ponds. I've been to Florida and Alabama this time of the year in the past, and I've never, ever seen anything as green as this!"
Several other Diarists weighed in with other observations:
scanman1722 was agog in It's 60 degrees in New England! What The F***?: "Today, if the weathermen are correct, it will reach 64 degrees in Connecticut. Not that I need to remind anyone, but January 6 in New England is usually a day where the heat is cranked up and snow is falling. However today the windows in my house are open and people are walking around the streets of New Haven in tshirts and shorts. Call it what you will - global warming, a January heat wave, the vast left wing meteorology conspiracy of Al Gore - but let's face it: this just aint right."
sfluke asked Feeling a little warm this winter?: "One of the more noteworthy outcomes of the shrinking polar ice cap is our environment's inability to generate cold air. Typically at this time of year, the eastern 2/3 of the country gets "Arctic blasts" of air that swing in on fronts that push down through Canada from the Arctic. But there's little chance of that happening this year."
terrypinder had his own Climate Change Observations: "It's almost as if we're moving into a climate where we'll have wet and dry seasons. 2005 was very much like that here in Harrisburg, and so was 2004. Much of the rain came in the late summer in 2004 (compliments of Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne) and same for 2005 (compliments of too many storms to list.) Last summer there were no storms, yet the rains came anyway."
How was the media playing it? Typically bad, said some:
There was some doubt in FWIW’s mind about the Washington Post’s reporting, as noted in Global Warming? El Nino?: "An article in the Sunday edition of WaPo, reported that "Across the region yesterday, it was more summer than winter," with people "shirtless in January in D.C." and part of the D.C. library closed due to "excessive heat." Reagan National Airport reported 73 degrees breaking the record temperature from more than 50 years ago. Brian LaSorsa, a National Weather Service meteorologist blamed El Nino, while another meteorologist with AccuWeather.com said that global warming is not responsible for the unseasonably warm winter."
Also nonplussed by the coverage was Linda in SFNM, who wrote MSNBC: It's "Wacky Weather," not "Global Warming": "The woman explains how she enjoys warm weather, but is concerned about it, because it isn't normal and is afraid this is just another example of Global Warming. The Reporter almost lunges at the jogger to interrupt her claim and quickly corrects her that ‘they say this is El Nino’."
Perhaps, as The Cunctator argued in Global warming? Don't ask a weatherman (WaPo edition), the media are asking the wrong people the wrong questions: "Meteorologists and climatologists are not the same kinds of scientists. Asking meteorologists to answer a question about climate is like asking veterinarians a question about evolutionary biology. As the climate scientists Joel Achenbach interviewed said, the changes in global weather patterns we have seen this year, including the record warm temperatures and the unsual storm activity over North America, Europe, and Asia, are consistent with climatological modeling that takes into account the effects of the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Historically unusual weather which when averaged geographically and temporally is warmer than the past is what global warming looks like on a local scale."
When you do ask the proper experts, as theyrereal said in World faces hottest year ever - change more severe than predicted, the answers may not soothe: "Not to scare you, or to keep you up late at night, but it turns out that scientists have quite possibly been underestimating the rapidity of the climate change which we are experiencing because ... well, because they didn't want to scare people, and wanted to sound "responsible". Now, as more data comes in, they are changing their tune, and realizing that it's irresponsible to NOT be honest about the very likely future."
According to the LA Times: Global Warming Not So "Subtle". As atdnext wrote: "Apparently the last time the earth experienced the type of warming that we are facing today, it was not all that slow and innocuous. In fact, the climate change was violent and drastic. The plants of that era could not survive the wild fluctuations in temperature."
Offering a reprise of a just-written academic paper, cwech suggested that the way to get people to do something lies in Reframing Environmentalism: Al Gore's Fight Against Global Warming: "Collective laziness is nearly always the chief sin in Social Gospel rhetoric. The challenge for environmentalists is to inspire people to take action. Al Gore sought to create that inspiration through his movie by shaming us into action, the steps are so simple, yet so many people will not do anything to reduce their impact on the planet; they are sinners for their laziness. Even the title leads to this idea of collective laziness as one of the chief sins afflicting our society, An Inconvenient Truth, suggests that we have ignored what good science tells us and have refused to act merely because its not convenient ..."
One of many who are doing something is DraftChickenHawks, who presented his Report on the Al Gore Climate Project Training: "It was just amazing -- I am a Professor, I talk for about 75 minutes at a time and do it 4 times a week. He spoke from 8 am one morning to 5:45 pm that day, with two 10 minute breaks and one 1 hour break for lunch (and yet he could not finish his part of the lecture and so conducted another one hour session at 7:30 the next morning!): that is a total of about 8 and a half hours that he was fully engaged with us. I am trying to say this as dispassionately as I possibly can: but his command of the scientific issues, his intelligent engagement with the audience, his passion for the issue, his absolutely amazing stamina, and above all, the spellbound and yet alert attention that he was completely given by the audience, is just unbelievable."
The message seems to be getting across, because, as DWG explained,
Al Gore is Smiling: The Mercury News Steals His Thunder: "Good news is long, long overdue. This editorial by the Mercury News staff is the strongest statement I have ever read in a large circulation paper. Perhaps you know of others, but the statements made in this editorial are too powerful to ignore. I beg of you to read the entire editorial."
Prolific eco-Diarist Patrick Kennedy covered climate change in a series of Diaries Survey of Iowa Democrats on Global Warming, Barack Obama (on renewable fuels), Is Global Warming a Priority for Dennis Kucinich?, John Edwards Campaign Makes Global Warming a Priority Update on John Edwards and Global Warming, The New (and Old) Senate Global Warming Bill and The Shifting Global Warming Debate: "[New York Times reporter Andrew] Revkin is a careful and experienced reporter on climate change issues and he works hard to be fair. But as I said I disagree with him that Al Gore belongs at one of poles of the climate change debate. Every review of Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth by climate scientists that I have seen has said, with a few minor quibbles, that he has gotten the science right."
NorthAndEast did a rip On Climate: an example of unrealistic thinking: "The writer, Edwin Feulner, believes that by increasing use of fossil fuels, we are bound to reduce their use. That argument doesn't even have face validity. Admittedly his argument is a little deeper than that, he cites the unspecified research cited by the World Bank (wow! now that is research you can count on!) that shows as people get wealthier, they hurt the environment less. He says ‘It seems that once people are earning enough to support their families, they're eager to improve their environment, too.’ Apparently Hummers and 10,000 sqft homes with 9 foot ceilings are only for the poor."
Cassiodorus went philosophical in a book review of Ecologia y Capital, or Enrique Leff for beginners and For a movement to defend the right to live off of the land: "The main social developments in the world over the last thirty years or so have been 1) the imposition of neoliberal economics over nearly every one of the world’s economies, and 2) the fantastic growth in slums that have accompanied the explosion of urban capitalism in the neoliberal era. Using Mike Davis’ Planet of Slums, I outline a "way out" of the resultant social and ecological catastrophe brought on by these developments: a movement to defend the right to live off of the land."