Weather, Water, Energy 2-09-07

How to become a multi-millionaire. Just figure out how to stop our greenhouse emission problem. Seriously. Still, a great idea and who's behind it? The guy the end of this century will be talking about as the only one who had a clue. . . . Will carbon offsets be part of the winning effort? Don't know? Don't even know what we're talking about? Grist has a nice roundup of articles that will impress your next date. . . . Would you buy "catastrophe" bonds as part of an investment strategy? They may be the only alternative to the insurance companies that are now bailing on the hurricane-impacted part of the country. This is why finance and I never really understood each other, but people apparently are making money. Of course, there's always the "if a storm hits and an insurer must pay out claims, the bond investor loses everything, including the interest and principal." (My money's on pork bellies.) . . . The ebb and flow of Greenland glacier melting are causing major wrinkles in scientists' foreheads. . . . A US-Canadian agency has had enough of governments responsible for the Great Lakes blowing that responsibility off. This quote may be all our epitaph: "It's so easy to say, `Gee, it's not my problem, it's somebody else's problem,'" said Allen Olson, a commission member and a former North Dakota governor. "Eventually, you have to say we should all be accountable. It's an idealistic, pie-in-the-sky approach, but it's necessary." . . . Finally, there's a great new blog--The Situationist--focusing on the implications of what's happening in cognitive science and neurological research for our everyday lives and how we live them. This post and its add-on give an terrific analysis of why we can be upset by the near and short-term but not the far and the long-term, which is, of course, why we're still playing the fool while the planet warms. Make it a regular stop. Just reading it will make you feel smart.