Weather, Water, Energy 1-24-07

I'm not going to give Bushnev's DOA global warm . . . actually, didn't hear much about that, just giveaways to his pork buddies in oil and biofuels, anyway, not giving his vaporness any oxygen. The best analysis of the SOTU is David Roberts' at Grist. . . Don't think much about the general non-"greenness" of computers, their energy use in particular, but corporations are apparently putting pressure on computer makers to get their efficiency up and climate impact down. Interesting article. . . . Headline of the Day: "Biggest threat to U.S. drinking water? Rust" The pipes, the pipes are calling!! Sorry. Couldn't help myself. . . . This headline was very upset about losing the HOTD contest, but it's hopeful news: "Portugal wants renewables to meet nearly half of its electricity needs" Essay question: Compare and contrast to the US President's SOTU Address and determine which nation's leader is the poothead. . . . Alabama is right at the top (that is, bottom) of yet another list, water quality AND efforts to protect it. . . . Experts are warning that the climate change we face will exacerbate the influences that have increased terrorism and global unrest. (Osama's even using it as recruiting material.) Kind of "duh" but not something generally included in all these "oh, let's show both sides and come out somewhere in the middle" crap we get from the "reasonable people" who turn out not to have even considered these sorts of factors into their chablis-driven analyses. (Boy, I'm turning into Glenn Beck.) But even "moderate" change will drive these other nonlinear flows in directions we aren't even talking about. Good to know somebody won't be shocked. . . . Finally, frogs might not really sit in gradually warming water, at least not now that they've heard the famous fable and feel really stupid about it, but the analogy is still good for so much of the human reaction to the slo-mo, long-term rollout of problems that face us like climate change (and prison reform and health care reform and shift from African-American to Hispanic minority dominance and . . . ). This sums it all up really well (and notice who's figured it all out):

Yet in a world where millions of individuals are unable to quit smoking or avoid obesity, action to curb global warming seems a tall order, partly since it will affect future generations hardest.

And, like the fabled boiled frog, people may find it hard to tackle an invisible threat.

"Our evolutionary biology ... equips us to respond far more easily and naturally to a threat from a snake, or a fang, or a claw or a spider than from a threat that can only be understood by the use of abstract reasoning," Gore said in a presentation in Oslo in 2006.

"It's not impossible, but it does take more time," he said.