I get a daily RSS feed from Google on climate change and global warming. 90% of the coverage is international, which is alarming when you figure that the US is a primary source of the problem and we’re completely ignoring it. As this article in the Independent shows, CO2 emissions are growing far more rapidly than any efforts to cut those emissions, primarily because of rapid growth in China and continued lack of action in the US (or, to be honest, anywhere else). Ideally, we need to immediately cut back by at least 60%, instead we’re growing the annual total by several times that.

As the article says, we’re in a spiral that is accelerating to the point where there may be little we can do about it. Which sucks.

The US media has a responsibility to be more agressive in covering what is certainly the biggest story in human history.

The recently released UK government report compiled by respected economist Sir Nicholas Stern (summary here) shows quite compellingly that ignoring climate change or even intentionally suppressing references to it, is going to cost us big time. He projects worldwide economic conditions worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s, driven by widespread drought, the spread of disease and damage to coastal areas from rising ocean levels, all in the next 20-40 years.
Tracking the news on climate change and warming, as I do daily, gets increasingly alarming, especially as our (US) interest in doing anything about it seems to wax and wane with the price of gasoline. I am wondering why Al Gore doesn’t broadcast his film, An Inconvenient Truth, on PBS and freely distribute DVDs to schools. It would serve two valuable purposes: raise the alarm and put Gore into the spotlight as I believe we need a President who will make this issue the focus of their presidency- unlike this idiotic debacle in Iraq.

If you think speculating about the effects of global warming is something interesting to read on a blog, you probably don’t live on an island. Because, if you do, these effects are the real deal, right now. In this rant, scientist Gerry Connelly, a resident of Bermuda, gives a clear and frightening evaluation of what those island dwellers are looking at right now: the potential loss of the Gulf Stream and its moderating effects, loss of fishing, extreme weather (Katrina) and the possibility that they could be facing evacuation within a few years- extreme but entirely probable.

just disappeared one day. How quickly would the planet recover from the negative effects of its dominant species? This fascinating speculation takes that scenario and applies some scientific thought to come up with what might be good news for the rest of the planet should we suddenly teleport to another place (nice scenario) or be decimated by disease (more likely scenario). Great reading.