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One day while digesting the latest piece of bad news about the economy, I thought about my grandchildren and wondered what they would be worrying about when they were adults. I decided that economic downturns come and go, but CLIMATE CHANGE is here to stay.
So, what now? How will climate change affect the way our children and grandchildren live and work? What do we know today that we can use to prepare them for the coming changes? I don't have the answers, but maybe together we can come up with ways to restart our thinking about living on a planet that may be quite different from what we see around us today.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Sarah Palin As Climate Change Advocate
California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger argued a strong case for the effectiveness of local action over international action when it comes to dealing with climate change. His argument finds support from an unexpected source, former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin.
Thursday, December 10, 2009 Copenhagen: Mozart Would Have Loved This
It helps to understand the goings-on at Copenhagen if you think of it in terms of a comic opera, something that Mozart might have produced.
Monday, December 7, 2009 Does Copenhagen Still Matter?
When Copenhagen wraps up, I think we'll see emissions and funding targets well below what the scientists and economists agree is necessary and fair to deal with the problem.
Monday, November 30, 2009 Climate Change You Can Believe In
The consensus among the global warming deniers is that the war is over. Okay. Suppose that is true. What now?
Monday, November 23, 2009 The Great E-Mail Hack (5 comments)
The climate change community is abuzz over the now confirmed hacking of thousands of e-mails from the servers at The Climate Research Unit.
Friday, November 20, 2009 The Year of the Skeptic
Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) has a declared a great victory in the wars against health care reform and the cap and trade portions of the energy reform bill. He should remember Yogi Berra: "It ain't over till it's over."
Monday, November 16, 2009 No "Hopenhagen" This Year
The news that Copenhagen will not produce a binding treaty should come as no surprise. The signs were pretty much there for all to see back in July when the G8 failed to take any concrete actions on climate change, a level of inactivity that has been matched by every succeeding conference.
Monday, November 16, 2009 What if I'm right and the global warming deniers are wrong?
What if climate change is real? What happens if we undertake solutions to deal with human-based global warming due to excess greenhouse gas emissions? Let's see.
Thursday, November 12, 2009 Is Global Warming A Bad Thing?
Is Global Warming A Bad Thing? It depends on who you are and where you live.
Monday, November 9, 2009 Bjorn Lomborg's Logic is Missing In Action
Bjorn Lomborg is what I guess you could call a non-denier denier of climate change. His position seems to be that climate change is real but not worth bothering about, a problem easily dealt with through geo-engineering, leaving plenty of time and money to work on other things.
Monday, November 2, 2009 Politics and Climate Change: The Art of the Deal
The recently concluded European Union (EU) negotiations on funding the climate change for developing nations illustrates the opportunities and the frustrations that come with leaving climate change in the hands of the politicians.
Thursday, October 29, 2009 This Week's Climate Change Beef
This week's climate change brouhaha centers around the impact of eating meat, arousing fears in certain quarters that those damned vegetarians were at it again, trying to impose their new world meatless order on the rest of us.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 The Cost of Climate Change Present and Future
Claimate chage isn't the future. It is the here and now. Remember that the next time you read some breezy assurances that global warming is a hoax. Try telling that to the folks out there on the front lines of climate change.
Monday, October 26, 2009 The Human Element to Geoengineering
We hear a lot of talk about geoengineering as a way around the problems caused by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The argument usually centers around the technical feasibility of such efforts, but I'm here to tell you there is a human element to this as well.
Friday, October 23, 2009 Why Americans Don't Care About Global Warming (2 comments)
The percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising is falling sharply. Fewer Americans see global warming as a very serious problem. At the same time, the scientific consensus global temperatures are rising is as solid as ever. So why is this happening?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Copenhagen: The Race to the Bottom Begins
If you pinned your hopes on some sort of grand climate change bargain coming out of Copenhagen, you might want to think again.
Sunday, October 18, 2009 All Seven Billion of Us
Followers of the climate change debate know that both sides bring a lot of passion to the argument. As the comments go back and forth and the sparks fly, there are occasional moments when a fundamental truth is illuminated.
Friday, October 16, 2009 Climate Change Winners and Losers
There are some places and people who will come out ahead from the current round of climate changes. But there are also an awful lot of losers.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 EPA Findings Lost Then Found
The eight years of missed opportunities to deal with climate change during the Bush administration can never be gotten back. But now we know that two administrations that differed on just about everything imaginable were in agreement on the central points about the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
Monday, October 12, 2009 The BBC Discovers Global Cooling (2 comments)
The BBC published a story entitled "Whatever happened to Global Warming?" The article points out that global temperatures have not risen in the last 11 years despite increases in the levels of CO2. The inference is that we humans can't be the source of global warming.
Friday, October 9, 2009 Saving Kyoto
A lot of people think that global warming is a hoax. We had better hope they are right because as recent events are showing, taking effective action against climate change still takes a back seat to preserving national interests.
Monday, October 5, 2009 Three Reasons To Believe in Climate Change
Climate change is very complex and the science is still unfolding, leaving plenty of room for debate. But I have settled on the following three reasons to believe. Taken together, they have led me to an inescapable conclusion: Man-made emissions are forcing climate change.
Thursday, October 1, 2009 10 Reasons Why Climate Change is a Tough Sell in America (6 comments)
I believe that climate change is THE single most important problem my children and grandchildren will face. Most of the world feels that way. Here in the United States, not so much.
Thursday, September 24, 2009 Obama and Hu Find Common Ground, Just Not the High Ground
American President Barack Obama and China's President Hu Jintao have found common ground. In a joint appearance at the UN, both men pledged to do less than what scientists around the world have been saying is the bare bones minimum necessary to forestall serious consequences from climate change. In the world of international climate negotiations, this ranks as major headway.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 Filling The Leadership Vacuum on Climate Change
The U.S. is mired in a political temper tantrum from the right. Who will step up to lead the fight against global warming?
Sunday, September 20, 2009 19th Century Thinking in a 21st Century World
The prevailing belief is that world greenhouse gas emissions must peak by the year 2015 in order to avoid a rise in the average global temperature of 2 degrees Centigrade. The world has pinned its hopes on a process of collective action that began in earnest with the Kyoto Treaty and was to continue in Copenhagen. Hopes for that are dimming rapidly.
Thursday, September 17, 2009 Sen. Reid Dashes Hopes for Copenhagen Climate Progress (2 comments)
With a couple of sentences, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) stuck a dagger into the heart of any remaining hopes that something useful might come of the climate talks in Copenhagen this December.
Sunday, September 13, 2009 Copenhagen 2009: Science Proposes, But Politics Disposes
Science has presented persuasive evidence that emissions from human activities have forced an increase in average global temperatures, but politics will determine how the world deals with climate change when negotiations begin at Copenhagen. And politics means politicians, and we all know what that means.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 The Ultimate in Going Green (1 comments)
I've just finished touring a part of the world's oldest and largest factory. It is an immense structure that runs 24/7 and yet there is not a smokestack in sight. This factory uses no electricity, runs completely on solar power, and requires no workforce. This factory invented the idea of recycling. You could say it is the ultimate green operation.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 The Road to [Global Warming] Hell is Paved With Good Intentions (3 comments)
When it comes to doing something about global warming, we see a lot of action on the scientific front but relatively little reaction on the political front.
Thursday, August 27, 2009 Let's Do This For Teddy
With Ted Kennedy gone there are no more giants left in politics. Not one single Democrat comes to mind. Not one single Republican. Health care reform is left to the likes of Chuck Grassley, for God's sake. I guess that says it all.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 How To Be Oxygen Neutral In One Simple Step
When I walk around my yard, which believe me isn't that big, I count eight trees. In terms of being oxygen neutral - liberating as much oxygen as I consume - that puts me way ahead of the game.
Monday, August 24, 2009 The Persistence of Denial
We wouldn't think about taking the kids out for a ride in the car without first buckling their seat belts, because seat belts are part of our checklist for safe driving. Thinking about global warming should be part of our checklist for living a better life and leaving a better planet for our kids to inherit.
Friday, August 21, 2009 Hot Town, Summer in the City
When I first started thinking about global warming, I wanted to find ways to make the future seem more real to my children and grandchildren. I figured this would be a challenge because they will be living in a world that is quite different from the one they see around them today.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 Can We Fix Climate Change Without First Changing Ourselves?
The implied goal of geoengineering is to set up a situation where we can go on doing what we have been doing, a "business as usual"- solution. In other words, we won't have to stop doing the things that we know are harmful to the planet and to our own long-term interests.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 A Tale of Two Crises (2 comments)
Climate change and health care reform are both caught in a vise, with the right pushing on one side saying that too much is being done and the left pushing on the other side saying that not enough is being done. Turning the handle are the special interest groups and the media, both of which have a vested interests in ratcheting up the rhetoric.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 Can Geoengineering Save The Planet? (1 comments)
Geoengineering schemes attack the symptoms without addressing the underlying disease. There are reasons for this.
Monday, August 10, 2009 The National Security Implications of Climate Change
The New York Times published a story about the national security implications of climate change. It reminds us that climate change is about more than climate. It is about people and places, politics and power.
Thursday, August 6, 2009 Peak Oil: Another Leftist Plot? (2 comments)
Peak oil and climate change are indeed two issues that are closely linked. Why? The longer we use fossil fuels, the more its impact on global warming.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009 Dick Armey Promises That God Won't Let Us Destroy the Earth (2 comments)
Former Republican Majority Leader and current lobbyist Dick Armey has declared in congressional testimony that God would not allow global warming to destroy the earth
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Transparent Aluminum (2 comments)
Scientists recently created a whole new state of matter that has never been seen before. Now that isn't something that happens every day.
Thursday, July 30, 2009 Carbon Dioxide Double Talk
Why the politicians love it when we spend time arguing about the reality of global warming.
Friday, July 24, 2009 Two Converging Forces: Climate Change and Population Shifts
By the year 2030 there will be 1 billion people aged 65 and older. This will add a new layer of complexity to the planning for dealing with the effects of climate change.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 Two Degrees of Separation (2 comments)
Meeting the goal of holding global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels still buys us a lot of trouble
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 The Ghost of Climate Change Past
Climate change deniers are claiming vindication based on a recently released study of global warming 55 million years ago. Only one problem. The study makes the exact opposite case.
Friday, July 10, 2009 The G8 Fiddles While the Earth Burns
The G8's inaction is a form of action. Its failure to decide on climate change is a decision, one that means trouble for the millions of poor people around the globe who will feel the impact of global warming sooner rather than later.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The Rollback of Bush Policies Continues
The rollback of the Bush legacy continues with reversals on his policies on global warming and the morning-after pill
Thursday, March 19, 2009 Sen Grassley's Modest Proposal
Sen. Grassley caused a stir with his proposal that AIG executives resign or commit suicide. It could be worse.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 Obama Repeals Bush Era Policies
President Obama has taken several important steps to repeal Bush-era policies and to shed light on a dark passage in American history.
Friday, March 6, 2009 Mad As Hell (1 comments)
We all need to stick our heads out the window and shout "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more." None of this had to happen. That's what is so infuriating.
Thursday, March 5, 2009 What Daddy Learned In The War
We all have formative experiences that interact over time to define who we are. Certainly, for me, the year I spent in Vietnam was a defining point in my life. Hence the topic, "What Daddy Learned From The War."
Monday, March 2, 2009 Coming Home
The recent rise in suicides in the U.S. Army brought back memories of my own difficulties in adjusting to life after Vietnam. I hope sharing these memories will give readers something to think about the next time they see a veteran.
