Climate Climate & Energy

I Had a Gas Station in Africa …

Unleaded gas making inroads in African countries — finally Years after leaded gas was given the heave-ho in developed countries, a number of African nations are beginning the process of shifting to unleaded. Leaded gas — or rather, the lead spewed into the air when it is combusted — has been shown to lower IQs […]

The Polar Excess

Comprehensive new study confirms that global warming is devastating Arctic For the handful of people left in the world who don’t yet believe it, a comprehensive new study should remove all doubt that the Arctic is being ravaged by global warming. The four-year study, commissioned by eight nations with Arctic territory (including the U.S.), was […]

The Lion Shall Lie Down With the Dam

Bush administration tweaks dam regulations to favor industry The Bush administration has just proposed a regulatory change that would grant the hydropower industry exclusive rights to appeal Interior Department rulings on dam licensing and operation — and deny those rights to states, Indian tribes, and environmental groups. Many privately owned dams, built before laws protecting […]

I Come Back to You Now, at the Turn of the Tide

Brits look to public-service ads and tidal power to cut carbon emissions On the heels of recent predictions that the U.K. will not meet its Kyoto targets, and a more recent report that the results of global warming will be “disastrous” for the country, Brits are casting about for new ways to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. […]

The Meek Shall Inherit the Dearth

Climate change threatens to reverse progress on fighting poverty Global warming will disproportionately harm the world’s poorest people and “perpetuate injustices unprecedented in human history,” says Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. Such is the conclusion of a sobering report called “Up in Smoke,” released this week by a 17-member coalition of environmental and […]

Serge Dedina sends a dispatch from the fight against a Mexican LNG terminal

Serge Dedina is cofounder and executive director of WiLDCOAST, an international conservation team located in Imperial Beach, Calif., just north of the Mexico-U.S. border. He is the author of Saving the Gray Whale, a book based on the three years he lived in the gray-whale lagoons of Baja California. Friday, 15 Oct 2004 IMPERIAL BEACH, […]

Umbra on UV ratings

Dear Umbra, Our radio station provides daily information regarding ultraviolet ratings. I am curious about what these ratings actually represent, and why they change so dramatically. For example, for the past few years, most ratings have been between three and seven. Now we are getting ratings of 10. I doubt the ratings are directly related […]

Italy jumps on the SUV-bashing bandwagon

Europeans don't take as kindly to mobile global-warmers as do their American counterparts.  Latest country to join in the anti-SUV backlash:  Italy.  The nation's Environment Ministry is plotting to slap a new tax on big gas-guzzlers, and possibly use the funds to incentivize people to scrap old cars and buy more efficient ones, Reuters reports.

Run-Run-Run-Run Runaway

Scientists puzzled by accelerating CO2 buildup in atmosphere A sharp acceleration in the rate of increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has climate scientists puzzled and sounding a bit nervous. Mauna Loa Observatory, perched on a mountain in Hawaii, has been taking atmospheric CO2 measurements for almost 50 years. In recent decades, the rate […]

Climate change in the mainstream press

National Geographic last month became the latest national magazine to place climate change on its cover, publishing one of the strongest series of pieces on the topic yet to appear in a mainstream publication. You can view free excerpts here, but will have to pay a visit to your trusty library to read the whole issue. Be sure to check out the note from the magazine's editor in chief, Bill Allen, in which he explains why he felt compelled to run the stories even though he anticipates a lot of angry reaction to them. "Some readers will even terminate their memberships," Allen predicts.  

Consider sending a letter to the editor commending the fella for his stiff spine. (The instructions say to include your name, address, and daytime phone.) Skeptic types like Patrick Michaels have been quick to lash back at Allen and the magazine.

When I first received notice of the 74-page series, I wondered whether National Geographic would lead with the term global warming or with climate change, the phrase now in vogue in many political and scientific circles. The magazine has it both ways. Allen goes with global climate change, but Tim Appenzeller, the publication's senior editor for science, and Dennis R. Dimick, its senior editor for environment and technology, begin their introduction to the series with the very words global warming. The magazine fronts the headline "Global Warning:  Bulletins from a Warmer World" over a fiery picture of an Alaskan forest aflame.