How to stop global warming - even if you don't believe in it

In the global-warming debate, scientists are, admirably, still trying to save the day. Last week, the American Geophysical Union announced plans to mobilize about 700 climate scientists in an effort to improve the accuracy of media coverage and public understanding of their field. Separately, a smaller group of scientists organized by John Abraham of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota said it was putting together a "rapid response team" to bring accurate climate science to public debates. 
On the face of it, such efforts certainly make sense. The scientists hope, not unreasonably, to bring more attention to the climate-change crisis. More crucially, they seek to halt the slide in public opinion on the issue, with recent polls finding Americans' belief in the evidence for global warming on the decline, along with their view of the need for immediate action to slow climate change. And it's true that science education, when done well, may help accomplish these goals.
But will it lead to meaningful policy? Or will this latest round of efforts instead result in another spate of news stories about scary end-of-the-world scenarios, another series of debates over whether global-warming science is a hoax and more wasted time - time we don't have?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111202800.html

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Climate scientists plan campaign against global warming skeptics

The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

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Sign of the Times: Hearings on “Scientific Fraud” of Global Warming Expected FireDogLake

So the Republicans run and win a campaign in a treacherous economic environment, when people are desperate for something tangible to improve their situation in life. And the Republicans will start that new era by putting science on trial.

Fresh off a dramatic victory in which it retook the House leadership, the Republican Party intends to hold major hearings probing the supposed “scientific fraud” behind global climate change.
The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder related the news in a little-noticed article Wednesday morning.
The effort is a likely attempt to out-step the White House on energy policy moving forward. Legislation on energy and climate change reform, one of President Barack Obama campaign promises, has yet to materialize, though Obama’s EPA recently classified carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
Holding hearings would please the Republicans’ conservative base, which increasingly doubts the scientific basis for global warming — especially human-induced global warming — and provide a reflection of the new GOP’s tenor.

What this Scopes Monkey trial for climate change won’t do is create one new job or improve one life in America. Well, maybe some climate denier whose new book could get a bump.
If show trials are really the answer the GOP thinks they have to the question of how to govern the country, this House majority could be a blip. More at:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/03/sign-of-the-times-hearings-on-scientific-fraud-of-global-warming-expected/

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Changes in energy R&D needed to combat climate change

A new assessment of future scenarios that limit the extent of global warming cautions that unless current imbalances in R&D portfolios for the development of new, efficient, and clean energy technologies are redressed, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets are unlikely to be met, or met only at considerable costs.More at:  http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-energy-combat-climate.html

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MIT study upbeat on nuclear power growth

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/reports/MIT_study_upbeat_on_nuclear_power_growth_999.html MIT study upbeat on nuclear power growth disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only by Staff Writers Washington (UPI) Sep 17, 2010 Nuclear power use is growing worldwide but the high costs of setting up plants, disposing of waste and worries over abuse are holding back expansion, a new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said. "To enable an expansion of nuclear power, it must overcome critical challenges in cost, waste disposal and proliferation concerns while maintaining its currently excellent safety and reliability record," said the report, the third since 2003 on nuclear power by the Cambridge, Mass., institution. The report noted how nuclear power development was moving ahead globally while lagging in the United States. The United States hasn't licensed a plant since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Proliferation fears cited in the report coincide with continuing row over Iran's nuclear program and plans announced by Argentina and Brazil to push forward their nuclear programs . The report said concerns over climate change and global warming could drive a global growth of nuclear power industry if handled correctly.

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White House: Global Warming Out, 'Global Climate Disruption' In

Obama Science Advisor Airs New Term: Global Climate Disruption

White House science adviser John Holdren called the term global warming a "dangerous misnomer" and urged adoption of the term "global climate disruption" in its stead to better reflect the complexity of the phenomenon, Fox News reported. Republican pollster Adam Geller was quoted as saying: "They're trying to come up with more politically palatable ways to sell some of this stuff," in the face of waning public interest in legislation to regulate emissions.

Fox News, Sept. 16.

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Image via Wikipedia

Policy Responses to Global Warming

(July 2010) 

• The human enhancement of global warming is seen as a worldwide problem and policy responses have accordingly had an international basis. 
• The principal focus has been on reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. 
• Arguably, nuclear power is the single most significant means of limiting the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations while enabling access to abundant electricity. 

Emissions of greenhouse gases have a global impact, unlike some other forms of pollution. Whether they are emitted in Asia, Africa, Europe, or the Americas, they rapidly disperse evenly across the globe. This is one reason why efforts to tackle global warming have been addressed through international collaboration and agreement.
The principal forum for international climate change action has been the United Nations, which has led to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. However, more recently other international approaches have been put in place, the Asia Pacific Partnership and agreements under the G8, starting with their 2005 meeting in Gleneagles, UK.

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Four Ways to Kill a Climate Bill By LEE WASSERMAN

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/opinion/26wasserman.html
Opinion: 4 main factors led to demise of climate bill
The failure of the White House and Congress to deliver a broad climate bill this year can be traced to four major mistakes, writes Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family Fund. The bill failed to progress because it downplayed the impact of global warming, contained too many concessions to special-interest groups, was overly complicated and did not receive adequate input from the public, Wasserman writes

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