Weather, Water, Energy 11-16-06

Not really a headline you wanted to see coming out of the Kenya climate conference--"Climate change: Key countries stick to old stances despite UN appeal"--but somehow not all that surprising, huh? . . . Wanna guess which nation is seen as the biggest obstacle right now? (Yes, China or Australia would be good choices, but, no, it's US.) But at least we're expected to be so for years. . . . Senators Boxer, Bingamon, and (eek) Lieberman are throwing down on the Busheviks, though, to change course. That'll be right after Lieberman decides to bail the Repubs out in the Senate in the name of bipartisan cooperation. Good quote from their message, though, one that should have been the Dems' electoral theme for this entire century: "If we are to leave our children a world that resembles the Earth we inherited, we must act now to address GHG emissions." The article failed, however, to record Georgi's reply: "I tole them two, I ain't leavin' Jenna and Not-Jenna nothin'. Damn li'l turds, anyway." . . . Europe, on the other hand, seems to have a clue. France is threatening the recalcitrant nations with special taxes on their imports, as we've mentioned a couple of times before, and here, the EU is going to zap penalties on polluting airlines, despite certain protests from the US, Australia, et al. (AKA, the destroyers). When people don't use/have brains, your only alternative is usually their pocketbook. . . . One really good and stupid way to deal with energy shortages while enhancing global warming is to turn coal into diesel. Of course, our military, backed by the Repubs, has been planning to do so. But now, the Dems in Congress may slow those plans, according to Climate Progress. . . . And Climate Progress also has an interesting post on the false tension between technology development and technology deployment in the search for energy effective alternatives. . . . Finally, another finding that polar bears, this time the cubs, are finding it harder survive in a world with melting ice. Sorry to have this one to leave you with.