climate review April (A)

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At the University of South Florida, things are surely looking as if they're now slipping into the long emergency.

The great downsizing has begun.

Three five departments in the humanities may be disbanded.

The Honors College prohibits teaching climate seminars 2009.

Honors' rationale: only natural scientists have legitimacy teaching the data; the natural scientist at Honors is quitting USF; other natural scientists interested in teaching Climate Seminars are not invited; and while social scientists, economists, etc can study it, they shouldn't teach it ... they might teach "propaganda".

Nice going, Honors. That's, like, so "outstanding"!

There are alternative views on the role of the humanities regarding climate change, but never mind.




Best graph:


High-res here (thanks Wired). This image shows carbon footprints. The bluer, the better; the redder, the worse. Here's the Vulcan Project video on quantifying fossil fuel CO2 emissions over the US, by the Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue. The New York Times calls this visualization quite politely "the breath of a nation".
I'd rather be frank and call it "the exhalation of climate change".


Best perspective:

The Sanity of Downshifting 3.28.08 Ecologist


Best quote:

And like whoever wins the presidency, Obama can never acknowledge any significant truth, such as that the nation is waaay beyond being just broke, and is even a net debtor nation to Mexico, or that the greatest touch-me-not in the US political flower garden, the "American Lifestyle," is toast.

Joe Bageant, via idleworm

CLIMATE POLICY

... Los Angeles considers global warming tax 4.7.
... Climate debate shifts as emission caps are not enough 4.6.
... New heat on Bush environment chief 4.5.
... World Bank accused of climate change "hijack" 4.4.
... Coal power policy under science attack 4.3.
... Can carbon offsetting help the planet? 4.3.
... IMF: climate fight need not dent growth 4.3.
... Bangkok intersessional aftermath (deutsch) 4.4.
... Bangkok intersessional (français) 31.3.
... Bangkok Climate Change talks (UN link)
... next: 2-13.6.08 Bonn, Germany; 1-12.12.08 Poznañ, Poland

CLIMATE EVENTS

... Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis (video)
... Same link, below the vid: the 60-odd comments (up to 4/9) highlight the level of skepticism in the US. Seen in this light, the USF Honors College is not fringe; locally it's mainstream.
... 2008: the year the world will cool down 4.7.
... Worldwide water shortage on horizon 4.3.
... Ecosystem flips imperil world's poorest regions 4.3.
... China drought worst in decades 4.2.
... Florida drought's grip may be loosening 4.2.
... Ocean cooling and global warming 4.1.
... state of the planet conference Columbia U 27-28.3. blog / site
... Geo-engineering: capturing emissions 3.30

CLIMATE MYSTERY MEAT

... T Turner: global warming will lead to cannibalism 4.3.
... Why Christians shouldn't care (April)
... Maunder minimum Google groups (spring 08)

SOCIO-GLOBAL CLIMATE

...US torture, Diego Garcia 4.9.
... peak oil review 4.7.
... P Krugman: food crisis and climate change 4.7.
... American decline I 4.7. ./ English /Italian
... American decline II 4.6.
... American decline III 4.6.
... Bush officials will be indicted for war crimes 4.6.
... American decline IV 4.6.
... B Maher: biofuel boom 4.4.
... American decline V 4.4. / English
... U.S. droughts endanger Canada's water 4.4.
... Extreme weather starving Uganda's pastoralists 4.3.
... Will the US solve the climate problem? 3.29.
... Tech keys to climate protection March 08
... Climate change as market failure March 08
... American decline VI 2.15.

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