Category Archives: climate

A toxic microalgae encouraged by global warming is thriving in tropical reefs and contributing to the poisoning of 50,000 people a year, reports the AP. The poisonous algae and its effect, which is known as ciguatera, is not new; in fact, among historical celebrities, it’s believed to have poisoned Captain Cook’s men in the SouthContinue reading “The Venom of Global Warming”

Enviornmentalists are often accused of enjoying "doom and gloom," as if those who care about nature and the planet want to see it destroyed. This makes no sense, if you think about it for a second or two. No one accuses Republicans concerned about Islamic extremism of wanting to see another 9/11. Why should environmentalistsContinue reading “Good News from Way Down Under”

The obvious news on the climate change front is that "An Inconvenient Truth" won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Given his chance to speak to the fabled billion people live for fifteen seconds, Gore spoke about climate change as a moral issue, not a political issue, and said we have everything we need toContinue reading ““We Didn’t Want to Be on the Wrong Side of History””

With Al Gore and others, billionaire Richard Branson will announce today at a press conference in London today a prize of $25 million to the inventor who devises an effective means to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although the participants are under a media embargo, American climatologist James Hansen–who will serveContinue reading “Greed Got Us into This Mess”

This past Monday, James Hansen spoke at UC Santa Barbara. His lecture slides are available on-line; the lecture is not, but let me put down some of his more memorable quotes. After noting the size of the crowd–over 1,000 people, buzzing with anticipation–he said he was happy to see a large crowd, including many students,Continue reading “Hansen Speaks”

The Wall Street Journal on Saturday ran an interesting little new story by John Fialka on why the long-term outlook for global warming may be "more dire than suggested" by the IPCC’s just-released Fourth Assessment on Climate Change. Two reasons: first, as Andrew Dressler already mentioned in a post below, the report doesn’t fully take intoContinue reading “Global Warming Outlook “More Dire” than IPCC Report, Says Wall Street Journal”

So much climate change news this week and last. It takes a team of people, as at Gristmill, just to take note. But here’s a great story in The New York Times about the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear, and why global warming may take away its winter dinner, and what one grizzly bear fan is tryingContinue reading “Global Warming and Yellowstone Grizzly Bears”

The World Glacier Monitoring Service reports that the Alps will lose three-quarters of their glaciers this century, due to climate change. Kevin Drum puts it well: For some reason, global warming skeptics are fond of claiming that glaciers aren’t really shrinking. Usually they do this by cherry picking a single glacier somewhere that’s been gainingContinue reading “The Vanishing Glaciers”

For literally years, Tony Blair has been pushing the Current Occupant to move against the threat of global warming. Now–according to insiders on 10 Downing Street–he will. According to a front-page story in The Observer: …there is a feeling that the US President will now agree a cap on emissions in the US, meaning that,Continue reading “Bush to Make U-Turn on Global Warming, Says Blair”