Climate Change

Did it come from an animal or did it not come from an animal?
(Tara Garnett, Food Climate Research Network)

Yeah, like it or not, those of us that eat meat and dairy products contribute significantly to climate change.

I got an e-mail yesterday recommending a story in the Audubon Magazine. The person that sent me the e-mail was right. The article is worth reading, even for the folks that know something about this subject.

For example, we know that methane (CH4) is twenty to thirty times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide is. Livestock produces a lot of methane.

So what does climate change mean? What are some of its economic implications? What might cause the global community to actually respond and address the issue of climate change?

The following short essays published in Edge offer some thoughts on the subject, written by people that actually have given the topic some serious consideration.

William Calvin is a Neuroscientist; Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine; Lawrence C. Smith is Professor of Geography & Earth & Space Sciences at UCLA; Stephen H. Schneider is a Biologist and Climatologist at Stanford University.

Yes, climate change is quite real, even in America. No, it’s not a hoax or an environmental conspiracy.

Has it really lasted eight years? Eight years that the American government has been run by simpletons, religious crackpots, and just plain criminals, along with a significant segment of corporate America having been allowed to run amok.

We soon should be able to finally get on with the serious business of how best to address climate change, not whether or not it exists. This past Friday The New York Times published an article entitled, In Obama's Team, 2 Camps on Climate.

The Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media recently published an interesting article on reader responses the mainstream media receives regarding climate change/global warming articles. Go to Duck and Cover: Climate News Reporting Routinely Draws Big, Loud Pushback.

One of our "captains" of industry, Don Blankenship CEO of Massy Energy, fourth largest coal producer in the U.S., offers his views on environmentalists.

A refreshing response to the industry's "clean coal" fantasy. Visit Coal.

Also see Obama's Coal Problem.

The [economic] crisis puts the nail in the coffin for climate change.
(Bill Kovacs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s vice president for environmental and regulatory affairs)

A few weeks ago we published a chart showing the complexity of near-crippling regulations proposed by the Climate Change Bill.
(Bill Kovacs, U.S. Chamber, June 2008)

The push to regulate mercury emissions from power plants is an attempt by extreme environmental groups to hinder growth and force jobs overseas.
(Bill Kovacs, U.S. Chamber, 12/3/03)

How will we ultimately define climate change and deal with it? What part will renewable energy play? At the moment, something like twenty-six states have adopted green-energy goals. But what does this mean?

You will need to make important decisions that will lay a solid foundation for an ambitious agreed outcome in Copenhagen, to shape and redirect humankind’s further development. (Yvo de Boer, executive secretary, United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change, December 2008)

It’s a conspiracy. You started it. We’re entitled. Not on my watch. Absolutely it’s a hoax. And best of all, we can’t afford to. Yes, leadership and vision do matter. There’s not much around however.

The most recent United Nations Environment Program report (mentioned in Earth Notes several days ago) concluded that increasing amounts of soot, particles, and cancer-causing chemicals have created a “brown cloud,” hanging over parts of the Persian Gulf and Asia, threatening health and food supplies in the region.

Frontline on public television Tuesday night presented a good overview on global warming.

Yes, there are plenty of reasons to be profoundly pessimistic as to our understanding and willingness to deal with the issue in a serious way, but there are also reasons to be mildly optimistic.

Collectively, the “captains” of industry in China and India presented themselves—at least publicly—as simply oblivious to what climate change might ultimately mean to their countries.

In terms of the American automobile companies, it is nearly impossible to feel any sympathy whatsoever for them, along with their unions and the politicians, who seemingly were willing to go over the cliff with the mediocrities that ran these companies.