Weather, Water, Energy 8-9-07

Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday. . . . In research published in the journal Science, Smith and his colleagues predicted that the next three or four years would show little warming despite an overall forecast that saw warming over the decade. "There is ... particular interest in the coming decade, which represents a key planning horizon for infrastructure upgrades, insurance, energy policy and business development," Smith and his co-authors noted. Do I really need to say anything else? . . . Meanwhile, Big Al calls out the major polluters funding the lies and disinformation campaign on global warming who would make the old Soviet Union propagandists proud. . . . Remember how we always point out here how, when deniers claim the science is wrong, they never claim it’s wrong in the way that would make problems worse, like the possibility the planet’s heating up faster than the models predict? (Like James Hansen’s predictions of the nonlinearity of ice sheet melt?) Well, here’s another example—coral reefs (reeves?) may be dying due to climate change faster than scientists have thought in the past. . . . Interesting but undo-able proposal at ClimatePolicy. Raising the gasoline tax enough to make a difference in emissions but putting the money into a system devoted to energy and warming solutions from which the taxpayer could indicate what programs s/he would want funded. . . . Canada not sitting back and letting Russia’s claims on the Arctic go unchallenged. Of course, we’re the ones with the nukes to lay claim to everything, especially if Sen. Inhofe (R-OKLAHOMA) gets his way. This could get nasty, folks. . . . How to take the ankles off the “other planets are warming” BS over at Climate Progress, along with other good stuff like a “Declaration of Stewardship” and the moronity of Michael Crichton. . . . When I saw this headline—“Climate Change Threatening Gardeners”—I thought things were getting a little personal. But it’s actually a pretty good overview of how global warming is making lives different (not to say better) for those who take their gardening seriously, and will continue to for the foreseeable future. . . . The national state legislators’ meeting is going on, and this story notes the important issues being discussed . . . without a word about weather, water, or energy. And we wonder why we’re the way we are and the way we’ll be. . . . Is it too early to stop running stories on national heat waves because they’re already too common? . . . Another story about how the rich will do better than the poor under global warming, locally and worldwide, and one of the reasons the people of the world won’t react to the disaster as fully as we’ll need to until we go past the tipping point. . . . With all the problems caused by turning corn into greenhouse gas emissions, I mean, fuel (as this IA article details), is it a good thing that some folks are trying to do the same thing with wheat. . . .I always thought the evil Milton Friedman’s unctuous smile (can anyone say “unctuous” without sounding unctuous?) when he would intone on how corporations serve the world by serving themselves and shareholders and not society was perfidy personified (alliteration), and this article makes it sound like companies are waking up to the lie not so hidden in that selfish rationale. Still, reading it, I can’t help put feel it really is just PR, waiting for the next “greed is good” cycle. Check it out and see if you agree. . . . Mexico’s glaciers feeling the heat, too, apparently. And, uh, when you go on one of those oh-so-trendy “see the glaciers before they melt” tours, you might want to stand back a little further than before. Apparently those suckers are dangerous when they break loose.