There are many things evolution has not prepared us for. That is a major reason we find ourselves in this mess. (via xkcd)
Warning
Why EPA Regulating Greenhouse Gases Is Absurd…And Why It Doesn’t Matter
John Nielsen-Gammon is not happy with the appeals court decision that upheld EPA GHG emissions rules concluding: Until there’s a reasonably intelligent scheme, approved by Congress and the Administration, for regulating greenhouse gases effectively and appropriately on a national and intenational level, the present absurd approach is mandated by law. To me this seems like plenty of... Continue Reading →
UNESCO to set up UN science advisory board
Via Nature News: The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has agreed to set up an international scientific advisory board to provide him with guidance on science-related issues, and enable him to provide advice to UN member states on such issues.
US Appeals Court Upholds EPA Greenhouse Gas Emission Rules
Via Climate Progress: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today unanimously ruled in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) legal authority to limit industrial carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans’ health. Makes sense, especially since it was the courts who told the EPA that the... Continue Reading →
Depressing yet expected
Via Nature News: Oil exploration ramps up in US Arctic A new round of exploratory oil drilling is due to begin in the Arctic this July. Oil companies are no doubt dreaming of a northern oil rush, while environmentalists face nightmares of devastating spills.
EO Wilson: Advice to young scientists
It is worth noting that EO Wilson and Richard Dawkins are currently involved in a dispute over some of the more intricate details of evolutionary theory. I mention this only because it highlights a key aspect of scientific disputes that can get lost on (or intentionally abused by) some people. Most of the deep details... Continue Reading →
Teach the controversy
Some how I don't think this is what they had in mind: A disagreement between the twin giants of genetic theory, Richard Dawkins and EO Wilson, is now being fought out by rival academic camps in an effort to understand how species evolve. The simple fact is that with any scientific theory there is going... Continue Reading →
Rio+20: 20 years of standing still
Rio+20 has come and gone. It ended in the traditional fashion for UN environmental summits with the nations of the world agreeing that, at least in principle, it would be preferable to prevent wide-scale degradation of the planet's natural systems. Furthermore world leaders have agreed that action should be taken, at some unspecified point in... Continue Reading →
Beyond absurdity
This is more absurd than the usual drivel from ClimateDepot: We need to redefine sustainable development as oil, gas, coal
This is an exciting time
From the always amazing XKCD:
Rio+20
Is anyone here interested/hopeful in RIO+20? Personally after watching year after year of UNFCCC meetings agree to do something about GHG emissions... at some unspecified point in the future, I have little hope that Rio+20 will produce anything useful. Though I'd love to be proven wrong.
The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones
Roger Harrabin asks: Is 'peak oil' idea dead? So here's another worry - not that we have too little oil and gas, for the time being at least. But that we have too much if we want to enjoy a stable climate.
Canada outlaws the environment
Yes, that is an absolute hyperbole. Did it get your attention? Yesterday the Canadian House of Commons passed the disastrous bill c-38 that rolls back much of Canada's environmental protection legislation. Opposition parties mounted a desperate attempt to make amendments or at least split off some of the more contentious issues so there could be... Continue Reading →
Third pipeline leak in Alberta in three weeks
I don't see what the problem is. These were ethical oil spills, weren't they?
Resilience vs Yield: A Difficult Choice
The challenge of feeding the estimated 10 billion people by 2050 on an already stressed agricultural landscape without further degrading the state of the planet will be an enormous task. This much should be obvious to anyone. What is perhaps less obvious, however, is that we are faced with some very difficult choices as we... Continue Reading →
Yet another study confirms global warming is human-caused
For the record no one here at Planet3.0 is surprised: Researchers averaged the results from a number of climate models, and compared that to global temperature records for the upper 700 meters of the ocean from 1960 to 1999. The temperature record is less complete for the deep ocean, and its massive volume and separation... Continue Reading →
Webcam art
A beautiful picture from the North Pole webcams (H/t the Arctic Sea Ice Blog)
Climate change is simple: We do something or we’re screwed
For more info check out David Roberts' blog
A terrifying graph
In North America coal use might be down thanks to the abundance of cheap natural gas but the global perspective looks very different: According to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy, coal consumption grew 5.4 percent in 2011 and coal production grew by 6.1 percent, giving the resource a 30 percent share of... Continue Reading →
Green from the Grassroots
Elinor Ostrom, Nobel-prize-winning economist of common pool resources, died of cancer this week, aged 78. Her final published article was green from the grassroots here are some excerpts: Decades of research demonstrate that a variety of overlapping policies at city, subnational, national, and international levels is more likely to succeed than are single, overarching binding... Continue Reading →
Japan Restarts Nuclear Reactors
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda ordered the restart of two idle nuclear reactors Saturday amid widespread public opposition, more than a year after a powerful earthquake and tsunami triggered three nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Power Plant, and halted all 50 reactors in Japan... Saturday's decision comes as the government scrambles to shore up its energy... Continue Reading →
Yes and no
A simple graphic illustrating what we need to do to actually reduce our emissions: With no meaningful climate policy commitment – no binding emission limits, no carbon pricing, not even a clean energy standard – the awesome work of building a clean energy economy is proceeding in parallel to the unfolding disaster of climate disruption,... Continue Reading →
Rotating the Question
Steve Easterbrook shows the power of simply tilting your head: By putting the dates on the Y-axis and temperatures on the X-axis, and cutting off the graph at 2°C, we get a whole new perspective on what the models runs are telling us. For example, it’s now easy to see that in all these scenarios,... Continue Reading →
Fakegate exhonerations
Looks like an independent investigation done at the behest of the Pacific Institute has confirmed that Peter Gleick did not write the disputed fakegate memo. The Pacific Institute has re-instated him back to his position as president of the Institute And an independent digital forensic investigation done at the behest of Heartland institute found that... Continue Reading →
Have a few minutes?
Have a few minutes? Then take a survey. It is part of a study being conducted at the University of Western Australia.
I have never hated the clouds as much as I did today
This is what I wanted to see today The transit of Venus across the sun. Instead all I saw were some ugly overcast clouds. The next transit of venus wont be until 2117, so barring some rather large advancements in medical science today's ugly grey overcast clouds robbed me of my only chance to see... Continue Reading →
Making sea level rise illegal
Pure insanity doesn't even come close to what some legislators are trying to do in North Carolina: Some lawmakers will go to great lengths to deny the reality of climate change. But this week, North Carolina lawmakers reached new heights of denial, proposing a new law that would require estimates of sea level rise to be based... Continue Reading →
What’s Harper Afraid of?
By Franke James and in keeping with our recent focus on Canadian science issues.
Black Out, Speak Out
Why was Planet3.0 blacked out yesterday? In short because here in Canada we are facing somewhat of a crisis. While south of the 49th parallel in the US, politicians talk about a wide scale gutting of environmental protection laws, in Canada our politicians are actually going through with it. Since Prime Minister Stephen Harper and... Continue Reading →
The useful side of radiation
The news that Pacific Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of California have been found to have radioactive contamination from the Fukushima nuclear accident has caused quite a stir in some quarters. But there isn't anything to worry about as the BBC makes abundantly clear numerous times: The fish would have picked up the pollution... Continue Reading →
Quote of the day
When anyone says _______ (insert favorite policy, technology here) is "the" solution to a big, complex problem, they are invariably wrong. Via Jonathan Foley on Twitter