More quick hits:
- The Alps are their warmest in 1300 years, but don't worry. "It will undoubtedly get warmer in the future."
- The Germans are taking up leadership in capping the carbon dioxide emissions of airlines. The US will likely protest. We'll see who wins.
- Let's see. Global warming, experts say, will "slash crop yields, heighten the risk of famine, and deepen poverty for the world's most vulnerable." Effects on harvests will vary by region but the overall impact will be substantial.
- 2006 was a very warm year, but 1998 or 2005 were warmer. So I guess global warming isn't happening.
- Finally, Grist has a couple of nice long posts on topics of note here. This one will get you to a series on biofuels they're running, how we got to be thinking about them and what we should think about. And this one demonstrates conclusively why, if you have a choice between carbon trading and carbon taxes (and neither are great choices), go carbon taxes. The trading advocates always seem to have problems with little things like power and politics. Here's the money quote:
The world we live in includes politics. The opportunity to slip large corporate gifts into the system unnoticed, because there is no explicit cash cost, is overwhelming. (Look at how the McCain-Lieberman bill uses "Sky Trust" rhetoric to promulgate a Kyoto-style cap-and-trade system.) With carbon taxes, any giveaways are obvious and explicitly priced; permitting does not offer comparable transparency. Carbon taxes do not offer as many opportunities to use political judo, to turn your own strengths against the goal of limiting carbon emissions.
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