Weather, Water, Energy 3-5-07

Warming on our east coast and Midwest, warmest recorded in Asia, no snow all winter in Tokyo, China sees 5 m. people, 2.5 m. livestock with insufficient water supplies but other areas seeing normal drizzles turning to serious downpours—la, la, la, can’t hear you, can’t hear you, look at Al Gore’s utility bill. Want proof? US greenhouse emissions will go up 20% by 2020 from 2000 and the best Bushnev can do is propose subsidizing a fuel that may be more harm than good. Right on the edge and Georgi seems to still have the coke straw up his nose. Maybe Nero really is a better name. . . . Interested in geothermal heating for your home? It's not as crazy as some might think. Find out the details here. . . . Are you a SimCity fan? Like computer predicting? Well, some AZ State U folks have come up with a tool to help policymakers figure out what the likely outcomes of environmental and economic policies on future AZ water availability and use--WaterSim. The idea is to give comfort to those who want a little more certainty than we have but know we can't wait until the certainty is certain. Sounds cool. Phoenix may not be the only players by the time it hits the fan. . . . Nice to know. In Britain anyway, people in my age group, the 50s types, heft around the biggest carbon footprint of any age group. Probably true here, too, but the concern and willingness to change found in Britain isn't likely the same as here, since our overall poll numbers have been so much lower than Europe's. . . . Finally, from Grist, we hear of a new blog by some prominent meteorologists (we're assuming not the local tv news type)--Climate Policy. We'll keep an eye on it and make sure you don't miss anything big, but give it a shot on your own just to make sure.