Weather, Water, Energy 3-22-07

• Climate Progress has done a great job reviewing President Gore's testimonies yesterday in Congress. Lots to pick from but our favorite here has to be his takedown of Sen. Inhofe (OK-REPUB), who went off like the crazy uncle at Thanksgiving . . . and was treated accordingly. You can get good roundups of Gore's major recs here and here. The foundation is there now. We just need to rid the room of lunatic relatives.
• By 2025, 2/3rds of the planet will be affected by "water stress," particularly in the Third World, enough that the World Water Assembly is calling for water to be recognized as a basic right and kept out of private enterprise. Good luck on that latter one.
• Lipo + biofuel = synergy??? New tech to turn any old fat into energy. I'm sensing an irresistible tax credit concept here.
• All the coal-fired plants around the world being built as fast as they can be thrown up before regulations catch up mean an extra 1.2 b. tons of carbon emissions each year. These guys think they're coming up with new tech to make major cuts in those emissions, and these guys think carbon capture (aka sequestration) is the answer (assuming people start actually doing it). You like to think the emission stoppers will win, but you also know human history. We better hope they rise to the occasion. Here's why: "To date, many climate models have not fully accounted for the worldwide acceleration of coal-plant building, scientists say. 'The phenomenon ... would lead to greater CO2 emissions than most 'business as usual' forecasts project,' says Robert Socolow, co-director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University in an e-mail. 'Fortunately the world has now begun to take CO2 seriously, and coal-power emissions will be target No. 1 worldwide over the next decade. The fact that the US is waking up at last will give us the opportunity to have a positive effect on CO2 policy in the rest of the world,' he adds. Yet another indicator that things will go faster and worse, not slower and better, than the models predict. But let's fiddle.
• Predictions that hurricane season this year will keep the local tv weatherpersons off their meds and borderline hysterical. (Well, actually the local tv thing is my prediction.)
• Stop hunger. Use the new generation of hybrid vehicles. Cut need for biofuels such as ethanol. Save corn for people. The new protest movement.
• Finally, this may be the way to at last get the clueless paying attention to global warming. Drought in Africa = scarcity of chocolate. Heart just clutched, didn't it? See what I mean?