Climate Change
A Prop 23 Op. Ed.
Two of us (Rick Frank and myself) have just published an op. ed in the LA Times on Prop. 23. In a nutshell, Proponents of Proposition 23 argue that going forward with AB 32 in the midst of the current recession would further damage the state’s economy and eliminate jobs. But a study we recently …
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CONTINUE READINGThe New Yorker on Climate Legislation
Read the whole thing. Really. Because if you don’t, and all you do is read the subtitle — How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change — or just read the tag line — “Everybody is going to be thinking about whether Barack Obama was the James …
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CONTINUE READINGDoes the Earth Need Chemo?
In a recent conversation, a Berkeley climate scientist compared geoengineering to chemo: you may find out it’s your only choice, but it would be better not to get cancer in the first place. Likewise, we might need geoengineering, but it would be better if we didn’t pump the atmosphere full of carbon. Nevertheless, it’s important …
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CONTINUE READINGMajor Berkeley Conference on Climate and Energy
Today and tomorrow, Berkeley is hosting a major conference featuring leading scientists, engineers, and policy analysts. The keynote speakers include: Ralph Cicerone, President, National Academy of Sciences Chris Field, Co-chair, IPCC Working Group 2: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability Arun Majumdar, Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, DOE A live webcast is available here.
CONTINUE READINGChilly in Baltimore: Energy Efficiency and Wind Power
I heard an interesting story on NPR today about “district cooling” in which a company in Baltimore uses ice to produce chilled water, which is transported to a number of building in the city for supplemental cooling. What really struck me as cool about this (sorry about the pun) is the fact that this system …
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CONTINUE READINGMountaintop Removal: Incompatible with Climate Solutions and Incompatible with the Environment
Monday thousands of people converged on Washington, D.C. for the Appalachia Rising Rally to protest mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. Activists dumped 1,000 pounds of Appalachia dirt on EPA’s front lawn before marching on the White House. At a sit-in at PNC bank, four people were arrested while protesting that bank’s financing of MTR coal mining. …
CONTINUE READINGSuccess in Restoring the Ozone Layer, Mixed News for Climate Change
The good news is that the ozone layer is recovering. The reason it’s recovering is because the international community agreed — in the Montreal Protocol — to phase out harmful chemicals that were depleting the layer and causing huge holes in it. That’s the conclusion of 300 scientists who recently issued a “Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s All About the Feedback
A fairly common reaction to climate science is to wonder how changes in the concentration of a trace gas can have a substantial effect on the world’s climate. As it turns out, this is exactly the right question to ask. There’s a great post at RealClimate working through the logic. The direct effect of increased …
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CONTINUE READINGProp 23: Spinning the Poll Numbers
A new email blast from the California Jobs Initiative trumpets: “Brand new Los Angeles Times poll puts Yes on 23 in the LEAD!” That’s true, sort of. Or at least it has what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness.” The LA Times story is headlined: “Proposition 23 poll shows a dead heat among California voters.” As shown …
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CONTINUE READINGMeg Whitman, Prop 23, and AB 32
Meg Whitman takes the position that Prop 23 is wrong, but she says that she’ll suspend California’s keystone climate legislation,AB 32, for a year if she’s elected. The Berkeley White Paper on Prop 23 takes a different view than she does of the economic impact of Prop 23. Her proposal, which takes advantage of an …
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