Climate Change

Hit-by-Pitches and Climate Denialism

Ann’s post regarding the potential effects of climate change on the number of hit batters raises some critical issues on the national pastime.  And of course, I’d be delighted to sign up for the field study.  But climate deniers already have a ready answer. After all, they will ask: how do we know that the …

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Climate Change and Major League Baseball

In what may be the most serious repercussion yet from predicted temperature rises, NPR is reporting this morning on Professor Richard Larrick‘s research showing that as temperatures increase, so does the number of batters who get hit by pitches.   Moreover, when a batter gets hit by a pitch, retaliation by the opposing team increases …

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Climate Change: A Plausibility Check

No doubt there are many reasons for the existence of climate skepticism, but at least one is probably based on a sense of scale.  The amount of CO2 emissions is large in absolute term — now about 10 gigatons per year roughly speaking — but the atmosphere is much, much bigger.  Of course, CO2 has …

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New Methods for Calculating Carbon Footprints

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol today released two important methods for figuring out the carbon footprint of a product throughout its life and throughout the supply chain necessary to create the product.  These methods should – if implemented — help answer questions like how much carbon is emitted over the whole life cycle of a car, …

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Is There Really No More Room For Forests?

If you have even a passing interest in things environmental, and you keep yourself relatively well-informed, then no doubt you saw Justin Gillis’ superb page one NYT story on Saturday, about the decline (and at times possible increase) of forests; how forests provide critical carbon sinks to mitigate climate change; and how that climate change …

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Chris Christie and the Environment

There’s a lot of buzz about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as a possible GOP presidential candidate.  As with the other candidates in the race, it seemed like a good idea to check into his positions on environmental issues. The first thing that becomes clear is that he’s enthusiastic about renewable energy and energy efficiency.  …

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California Governor Brown Signs CEQA Reform Bills

Today California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to facilitate construction of both a major new sports stadium in downtown Los Angeles and large “environmental leadership development projects” involving financial commitments of at least $10 million and that incorporate substantial urban infill or renewable energy components. This …

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The Roots of Climate Skepticism

if you’re a libertarian, an evangelical, a populist, and a corporate officer — or any one of those three — it may be just a little easier to live in a world that lacks the kinds of deep interdependencies highlighted by climate science.

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What EPA should do with its delayed performance standards for GHGs

On September 15, EPA announced that it would not meet its September deadline for proposing performance standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from power plants. (That is the second delay; this proposal was originally scheduled for July 2011.) Some are asking if this delay is a big deal, and several environmental leaders sent President Obama …

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Arguing Climate by Analogy, or: Stupid Like a Fox

Bill Clinton says that Republican climate-change deniers make the United States “look like a joke”: “I mean, it makes us — we look like a joke, right?” Clinton said. “You can’t win the nomination of one of the major parties in the country if you admit that scientists are right?” Kathleen Parker, in a thoughtful …

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