climate review April (B)

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Wahnsinn! Is it my imagination, or is the information really surging? So much happened in the past few weeks that a review of natural and human dimensions of climate change is reeling in the data surf. But it's all good. I'm happy that, as they say, the chicken comes home to roost. It's time. The events are playing out as expected. Peak oil is invading the lifeworld. The food crisis is happening. The biofuel alternative has failed. The American lifestyle, which created climate change in the first place, is being questioned even by the Americans and has emerged as a style that cannot be universalized. The biospherical costs of China's emulation of this lifestyle make it plain, as one of our students put it, that "China needs to take one for the team." Foreigners watch the American decline with worry but also with relief. The gloves are off in transatlantic dialogues -- although it hardly made news (but see also here), it's unprecedented that a German minister can state, without reprimand by chancellor, parliament, or public, that climatewise, Gringos are Neanderthals. Even in planetary terms, a villager can act like a moron and pretend to be retarded only for so long before the community regards him as the global village idiot and starts talking down to him accordingly.

The Gringo Square has four corners: the red-eyed Baby Jesus angle, in which the biosphere is static, a means, and about to end; the Adam Smith angle, in which free markets are the final solution; the David Hume angle, in which the causal chain linking US lifestyle to global warming breaks down into a skeptic's cognitive disconnect; and the angle of Ayn Rand, a selfish bitch who moons the globe.

And now these things, formerly so obscure and esoteric, evolve into trivial truths, which is fair enough. In this post, I shall arrange data under the following headings: climate change events; climate policy events; climate mystery meat; global milieu; enlightenment, and dis-enlightenment--and that should do it for the next two weeks.

Let's hope so.

Best link: Sea Level Rise Explorer

Best dude: Sigmar Gabriel









Best news: at last, bike sharing reaches US


CLIMATE EVENTS

... Scientists unveil high-res map of the US carbon footprint 4.7.
... The US nears the limits of its water supplies 4.8.
... US Center for Disease Control: climate change health risks 4.10.
... logging boreal forest could detonate 'carbon bomb' 4.10.
... link to Greenpeace's April 2008 Turning up the Heat
... melting causes lake in Chile to empty 4.10.
... warmer seas, overfishing spell disaster for oceans 4.11.
... as Australia dries, a global shortage of rice 4.17.
... E N Lorenz, a father of Chaos Theory, dies 4.17.
... March warmest on record over world land surfaces 4.17.
... sticker shock in the organic aisles 4.18.
... Greenland, instant Niagaras, and climate wars 4.18.
... US CO2 emissions to rise 23 % over UN benchmark: IEA 4.18.
... watching wolves, moose--and heat--on Michigan island4.19.
... Europe-Africa bird migrations undergo alarming decline 4.21.
... arctic ice going fast: last year, only 13% of new ice survived4.22.
... sun cycles not key to recent global warming 4.24.
... WWF warns Arctic ice melting faster than predicted 4.24.
... Greenhouse gas levels rose in 2007: US agency 4.24.
... narwhals at risk 4.26.
... carbon dioxide, methane rise sharply in 2007 NOAA 4.24.8
... CO2 now at 385 ppm NOAA AGGI plus graph.


CLIMATE POLICY

... New Zealand speeds up exportation of top soil to China 4.8.
... the World Bank's carbon deals 4.11.
... World Bank "playing both sides of the climate crisis" 4.11.
... financing crucial to next climate change pact: UN 4.12.
... what price a clean planet? OECD / Enviro Outlook 2030 OECD
... climate change has a new battleground: coal plants 4.14.
... M Klare: the end of the world as you know it4.15.
... Bush climate plain said too little, too late 4.17.
... Bush climate plan under fire 4.17.
... Stern Review author: bleaker climate change picture 4.17.
... Paris talks on global warming 4.17.
... George Bush and the Neanderthals 4.17.
... EU lukewarm on Bush climate plan 4.18.
... EU set to scrap biofuels target amid fears of food crisis 4.19.
... US climate plan branded 'Neanderthal' 4.18.08
... Bush and the Neanderthals 4.18.08
... the climate-changer-in-chief speaks official US link
... Bush called out as Neanderthal official EU link
... climate a 'life and death' issue for native peoples 4.24.


CLIMATE MYSTERY MEAT

... Moron U 4.10.
... US climate skeptics complain of being silenced April
... Iwo Jima Vets blast Time's Environmental cover 4.18.
... F*ck the Earth Day 4.22.


GLOBAL MILIEU

... China to consume 63% more oil in 2020 compared with 2006 4.8.
... the last days of cheap Chinese goods 4.8.
... victims of the Bhopal disaster: abandoned to their fate 4.9.
... Euro scores record highs against dollar, sterling 4.10.
... Oil at $ 112 4.10.
... starving Haitians riot as food prices soar 4.10.
... Soros prophesizes doom 4.11.
... sounds the alarm again 4.11.
... G7 passes plan to ease credit woe 4.11.
... Cheney, others OK'd harsh interrogations 4.11.
... US Treasury Secetary says food price controls won't work 4.13.
... Beijing combats pollution ahead of Olympics 4.14.
... biofuels getting blame for high food prices 4.15.
... global hot spots of hunger set to explode 4.15.
... Oil at $115 4.16.
... 'threat' to future of Russia oil 4.15.
... Iraqi militias use food as recruiting tool, report says 4.15.
... global warming rage lets global hunger grow 4.19.
... it's time to scrap the ethanol boondoggle 4.18.
... across globe, hunger brings rising anger 4.18.
... Asian food crisis has political and civil implications 4.18.
... darkness starts to fall across America's malls 4.20.
... food rationing confronts breadbasket of the world 4.21.
... Oil at $117 4.21.
... San Fran Bay Area shoppers asked to limit rice purchases 4.21.
... Japan's butter shortage result of agri commodities crisis 4.21.
... Euro hits record high of $1.60 after US housing data 4.22.
... Oil at $120 4.22.
... Euro breaks through $1.60 as dollar slumps to record low 4.22.
... Earth Day 4.22.
... climate change 'may put world at war' 4.23.
... Indians collect debts from Americans 4.23.
... gas hits $3.60 a gallon 4.28.
... behind record oil prices, troubling signs in production 4.28.
... industry trackers expect $10 gas in 2-3 years 4.28.
... Americans unload prized belongings to make ends meet 4.29.

ENLIGHTENMENT

... Nine healthy habits 4.3.
... Spain's gain from wind power is plain to see 4.8.
... growth in 'green-collar' jobs 4.8.
... are you unhappy? Is it because of consumer addiction? 4.11.
... how to change the way we think about water 4.11.
... the Munich lifestyle 4.13.
... California OKs think tank on global warming 4.11.
... NAB 2008: Tim Robbins decries media 'abyss' in NAB keynote 4.14.
... if you care, eat less meat 4.15.
... 10 fixes for the planet 4.14.
... we can save the environment and get rich 4.17.
... how to get rid of junk mail in 7 minutes or less orig '07
... D Jackson: one less burger, one safer planet 4.15.
... green roofs popping up in big cities 4.15.
... G Monbiot: we aren't going to become vegetarians 4.18.
... J Godoy: but what is good about biofuels? 4.18.
... T Boone Pickens makes big bets on wind 4.18.
... Gore says laws must change 4.21.
... Toyota takes 1Q world sales lead from General Motors 4.23.
... Oil prices to double by 2012: Canadian study 4.24.
... two major US retailers ration rice amid global food crisis 4.24.
... G Hunsinger: history will not absolve us 4.25.
... Sweden takes lead in cutting carbon tracks of shipping 4.25.
... bicycle-sharing program in NYC first in US 4.27.

DISENLIGHTENMENT

... Top 10 most useless consumer items Mar 08
...Before you write that next check to the Sierra Club 3.28.
... US attempt to control Iraq's oil continues 4.7.
... J Kunstler: blind spot 4.7.
... the administration that has given us a mess 4.12.
... rush to biofuels is driving up the price of food 4.12.
... the Cairo lifestyle 4.14.
... L Skenazy: cellphone holdouts are right: buy phone, become baby April 08 repost, orig '07
... Bush to announce intermediate goal for CO2 emissions 4.15.
... McCain offers deeper look at economic policies 4.15.
... T Rall: the cavalry isn't coming 4.16.
... T Whipple: the peak oil crisis 4.17.
... global food crisis and bad policy 4.17.
... it's 1984 at the Wall Street Journal 4.18.
... US concentration camp update 4.19.
... US poll: all atmospherics, no climate 4.19.
... G Collins: the fat Bush theory 4.19.
... J Holland: life expectancies dropping, wages falling 4.23.
... US has less than 5 percent of world population but almost a quarter of its prisoners 4.23.
... E Fiske: a nation at a loss 4.25.
... environmental cost of shipping groceries around the world 4.26.


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