|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By John Crawford
by John W. Dean
$35
|
|
|
|
|
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reached a compromise with George W. Bush over climate change. The G-8 nations will work toward a replacement for the Kyoto treaty and a 50 percent cut in emissions by the year 2050. But in a concession to Bush, the goals will be nonbinding.
|
|
Representatives from 30 major cities around the world are meeting in New York at the invitation of Michael Bloomberg and former President Clinton to discuss methods of combating global warming. Bloomberg said city leaders will have to fill the “void” caused by national governments’ failure to act.
|
|
Queen Elizabeth began a toast on Tuesday by teasing the president: “I wondered whether I should start this toast saying I was here in 1776, but I don’t think I will.” Though she has since departed our shores, the British monarch is not done teaching Americans a lesson—her carbon footprint for the trip will be calculated and matched with a donation to an environmental charity.
|
AP Photo/John Heilprin
|
Karl Rove lashed out at singer Sheryl Crow and eco-activist Laurie David at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, one of the last stops on David and Crow’s nationwide tour to raise awareness about global warming. David later said Rove threw a “tantrum”; Rove insisted he was intentionally insulted by the celebrity duo.
|
|
A new study out of Stanford University says ethanol could worsen smog problems, as the alternative fuel may produce dirtier air than gasoline. Ethanol has already been something of a mixed bag for environmentalists, who are desperate for politically viable alternative fuels but troubled by the high cost of corn-based ethanol.
|
|
Over the objections of other members, the UK has brought the climate change debate to the U.N. Security Council. Russia, China and Pakistan said it was the wrong venue for the issue, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett pointed out that rising sea levels, mass migration and economic catastrophe would almost certainly impact global security.
|
siliconbeat.com
|
Why worry about preventing the climate crisis when you can profit from it? An online gambling site received more than 3,000 bets in three days on whether or when major U.S. landmarks will be flooded. Most are banking on Manhattan being underwater by 2011.
|
cnn.com
|
Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to make the environmental movement sexy. Why get rid of Hummers, California’s governor argued Wednesday, when you can make them run on biofuel and hydrogen, like his? Schwarzenegger has a warning for politicians who stand in the way of environmental progress: “Your political base will melt away as surely as the polar ice caps. ... ”
|
|
By Andy Borowitz — This week the satirist targets the convenient forgetfulness of politicians, who so frequently can’t remember why, when and how they screwed up.
|
greenpeace.org
|
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the climate crisis could afflict billions of people, especially the poor, with food and water shortages, drought and flooding. “For the first time, we are no longer arm-waving with models; this is empirical data,” explained one of the panel’s leading scientists.
|
reports.eea.europa.eu
|
The Environmental Protection Agency is being spurred by the U.S. Supreme Court to revamp its regulatory policies regarding greenhouse gas emissions from cars—a major concern in the debate over global warming, and one that the agency had previously reserved the right to ignore.
|
utexas.edu
|
Polar ice experts warned Wednesday that a Texas-size block of ice in the Antarctic has thinned surprisingly fast. The Amundsen Sea Embayment contains enough water to elevate sea levels worldwide nearly 20 feet.
|
|
Conservative ideologues have apparently abandoned the ridiculous claim that the jury’s still out on global warming. The new talking points, as outlined in this Heritage Foundation video, are as follows: Global warming has happened before, it won’t be catastrophic and it’s not worth endangering the global economy.
|
|
Former Truthdigger of the Week Dr. Joel Hunter, author of “Right Wing, Wrong Bird,” joins the podcast this week to explain why things didn’t work out with the Christian Coalition and why global warming and poverty bother him as much as gay marriage and abortion.
|
washingtonpost.com
|
Henry Waxman’s House committee put the irons to Philip A. Cooney on Monday. The former oil lobbyist who became chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality made hundreds of edits to government reports in order to downplay the link between fossil fuels and global warming.
|
|
It may sound like science fiction, but researchers are working on a number of bizarre emergency plans to fight global warming, including a mock volcano that spews reflective dust and a solar shade made up of a trillion flying saucers. Scientists have been hesitant to discuss such “geoengineering” schemes, but they may be our only hope if humans fail to curb emissions or the crisis turns out to be worse than predicted.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Evangelical Protestantism in the United States is going through a New Reformation that is disentangling a great religious movement from a partisan political machine. This historic change will require liberals and conservatives alike to abandon their sometimes narrow views of who evangelicals are.
|
news.bbc.co.uk
|
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared this winter the warmest on record for the Northern Hemisphere. So far, 2007 appears likely to rank as the warmest overall year. Annual temperatures have broken the record in 10 of the last dozen years.
|
|
While America is still begrudgingly coming to terms with the climate crisis, British politicians, scientists and newspapers have been shouting from the rooftops for years. So why is the U.S. so far behind its closest ally? Truthdig foreign correspondent Sarah Stillman spoke with more than 20 experts to find out.
|
|
By Andy Borowitz — The satirist reports that the justices have applied their electoral wisdom to the Academy Awards.
|
news.bbc.co.uk
|
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned Thursday that the danger posed by war “is at least matched by the climate crisis,” and urged the U.S., which produces roughly 25 percent of all greenhouse emissions, to take a leading role in addressing global warming.
|
|
John Stossel has truly gone off the deep end. While appearing on Glenn Beck’s radio show, the co-anchor of ABC News’ “20/20” called Robert Kennedy Jr. an “imbecile,” suggested global warming could be “a good thing,” and implied combating the crisis would “wreck the lives of poor people.”
|
|
“An Inconvenient Truth” took home two Academy Awards on Sunday, one for best documentary and the other for Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” (best song). In case you missed it, here’s a video summary of Al Gore’s night at the Oscars.
|
pbs.org
|
Although California has a reputation for smog-choked freeways and self-indulgent excess, the Golden State consumes less energy per capita than any other state in the union. What’s the secret? A combination of tough regulation and high prices.
|
|
Stephen Colbert stands firm when a climate change expert admonishes him for running five dishwashers and a 12-cylinder car.
Posted on Feb 15, 2007
READ MORE 
|
news.bbc.co.uk
|
A British-led group of legislators from around the world has agreed to a nonbinding declaration meant to lay the groundwork for a Kyoto Protocol replacement. While the statement will have no enforceability, organizers hope the agreement will spur momentum after U.N. talks stalled in November.
|
AP / Charles Dharapak
|
By Paul Cummins — The most instructive way to interpret Bush’s State of the Union speech is to focus on what he didn’t say.
|
|
A group of Al Gore’s campaign veterans and supporters met in Boston on Thursday to brainstorm a potential 2008 bid for the presidency. The former vice president denied any involvement and still insists he’s not running for anything, but his strong policy stances, unrivaled experience, name recognition and fundraising ability have supporters around the country hoping he’ll change his mind.
|
|
By Ellen Goodman — Unfortunately, framing the global-warming issue in catastrophic terms tends to paralyze us, not mobilize us.
|
|
Stephen Colbert on climate change: As long as it’s only 99.9 percent of scientists saying that greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming, then all the science isn’t in.
|
AP / Jacques Brinon
|
Truthdig tips its hat this week to the U.S. government scientist who braved certain backlash from the Bush White House for pushing through the most authoritative report yet on the dangers of global warming.
|
|
The most authoritative climate change panel, with 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, is expected to project the biggest change in average temperatures in thousands of years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes that even if governments manage to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions, oceans will continue to rise for at least 1,000 years.
|
From draftgore.com
|
After years of speculation about whether Al Gore will seek the presidency in 2008, a number of self-described grass-roots Democrats have given up waiting and launched a campaign to pressure the former vice president into running.
|
|
A day before the House voted to end subsidies to the oil industry, Nancy Pelosi announced the formation of a committee on energy independence and global warming. The speaker set a deadline of July 4th for “a package of legislation to truly declare our energy independence.”
|
chasingmidnight.com
|
On Wednesday the “doomsday clock” ticked two minutes closer to midnight as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists assessed threats from nuclear proliferation and global warming. Meant to signify humanity’s proximity to a major global catastrophe, the clock is currently set to 11:55 p.m.
|
autointell.de
|
The higher cost of hybrid cars is worth it in the long run, according to a comprehensive new study. When considering not just fuel economy but insurance, maintenance, depreciation and other factors, a Toyota Prius owner can expect to save $13,408 over five years, compared with a non-hybrid in the same class.
|
|
As usual, “The Simpsons” cuts to the quick of the global warming “debate.”
|
|
Following in the footsteps of big tobacco, ExxonMobil paid 43 ideological groups $16 million to attack the science behind global warming, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The real scandal isn’t that Exxon paid such groups to pimp its version of “reality,” but that the media felt obligated to take an “on the other hand” approach in reporting those fringe assertions about climate change.
|
timessquarenyc.org
|
A majority of Americans believe 2007 will bring a terrorist attack on the U.S., a major natural disaster and an increase in global warming, according to a new AP poll. Less than a third believe the U.S. will withdraw from Iraq, while 25 percent expect the second coming of Jesus.
|
firstpeople.us
|
The Department of the Interior will recommend adding polar bears to the endangered species list, a rare acknowledgment by the Bush administration of the impact of global warming. The world’s largest bears depend on ever-shrinking Arctic sea ice for their survival.
|
mikelevin.com
|
California’s Global Warming Solutions Act requires the state to cut emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Industrialists and environmentalists alike are watching intently as the world’s seventh-largest economy prepares to meet that goal—assuming the landmark law survives numerous court challenges.
Posted on Dec 25, 2006
READ MORE 
|
|
Froma Harrop —
Staving off global warming will depend on our willingness to take the long view and adopt the radically earth-friendly policies that are needed.
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
Letter From Birmingham Jail
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
