Weather, Water, Energy 2-15-07

A British court has called out Tony Blair for basically making a political deal with the country's nuclear power industry rather than doing a legit and honest assessment of the state of that industry there as had been required. Just more Blair BS. Seriously, why was he ever considered a good guy? Simply because he didn’t have Margaret Thatcher’s balls? Or his wife’s? For more proof, check this from Grist out:

Tony Blair is to devote himself to fighting global warming when he quits power this summer by promoting an American rethink on the Kyoto protocol.

Tony Blair decided the best time to lobby America for a "rethink" on global warming is after he's divested of all power? He thinks he'll have more leverage as a disgraced, deeply unpopular ex-Prime Minister?

And don’t read this if you’d like to think that anyone in Europe or the US has a clue. Guess we’ll have to rely on Australia and its idiot PM. . . . Meanwhile, conservatives in British Columbia are trying to out-Arnold CA's conservative gov in going green. Nice shot at the "let's study this to death . . . our death" morons, too. . . . Meanwhile, away from the elected world, the European Environment Agency is calling for serious planning to deal with the coming warming. Here are some of the things they foresee if action isn't planned right now:

-- Annual precipitation in northern Europe is likely to rise by as much as two percent per decade, although summers will be drier. But in southern Europe, there will be a fall in annual precipitation, especially in summer when rainfall will decrease by around five percent.
-- Flooding will become a more frequent risk over all of Europe. Northern Europe will run a higher risk of drought in the summer; southern Europe faces the risk of more droughts in all seasons.
-- Climate change will strongly affect natural habitat and biodiversity.
For example, loss of groundwater may badly affect dunes and wetlands in the Netherlands; streams and lakes in Austria that are fed by glacial meltwater could dry up; and new diseases, pests and species that thrive in an altered climate could threaten native species in Britain.
-- Water supplies for human consumption will also come under severe challenge, because at present, reservoirs and use of groundwater stocks are designed for a long recharge season.

And when someone tells you that plans like these will hurt an implementing economy?

The report adds that the cost of these impacts could be very high.

Less rainfall will affect which crops can be grown and the availability of water for coastland tourist resorts and golf courses. It could also lead to worse quality of drinking water. And lower water levels in rivers and waterways will also affect electricity generation by hydropower and impede navigation.

Droughts alone have cost 85 billion euros (110 billion dollars) over the past 30 years in the European Union (EU), led by 2003, a year that cost 7.5 billion euros (9.75 billion dollars) alone.

"Balance" that with your stalling and delay, Blair, AU idiot PM, and Bushnev. . . . A non-Africa poor part of the world that's looking to get hammered by global warming--South Asia. . . . Looks like the parts of the world most seeing the change from cold to warm are the ones most proactive. The AK (Alaska, not Arkansas) Forum on the Environment is even more deliberative on the state's options than the European Environment Agency. And, VT and other New England states are actively engaged with their Canadian colleagues in developing recs for joint action. . . . Still, there's always hope when a global multi-national like GE starts investing in wind farms in four states. Just don't notice that Brazil's going full speed into ethanol despite its very real problems and that Europe's emissions trading system has, well, gone bust. You just hope that, out of the dozens of bad ideas that our needs will generate, two or three will actually blossom. In time.