tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-234966522012-01-20T09:43:28.515-08:00notes on the looming Darwin awardMad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.comBlogger1201100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-54639980987258823932012-01-15T15:33:00.000-08:002012-01-20T09:43:28.527-08:00

Welcome back, guten Rutsch, & xin nian kuai le! Trendlines seem stable now.  CO2 output is steadily rising.  The arctic melt is spiraling towards permanent summer thaw.  Freak weather is not yet usual but also not unusual anymore either; whether in Jena or Tampa, temps are swinging more freely.  Munich Re pegs 2011 as the costliest year in recent history due to natural disasters.  Bad news keep

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-47383916397265181182011-12-11T12:36:00.000-08:002011-12-12T14:26:39.296-08:00

The semester is over and the winter solstice is upon us.  It is time for a look back at this extraordinary, awesome and hopeful year that has been 2011.  Yes, I'm talking about the year after the largest annual jump in carbon emissions on the planet.  I'm talking about the year humankind grew to seven billion people. I am talking about the year that caps the hottest decade ever, that has seen

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-82338965355471092152011-11-27T09:37:00.000-08:002011-11-30T14:16:57.702-08:00

The Durban Climate Conference (COP-17) kicks off Monday.  Two weeks ago, the Working Groups on Physical Science and on Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability gathered at the 34th session of the IPCC in Kampala.  Last week, they released a joint statement. Key findings about the near future are 1. there will be more extreme weather; 2. heavy rains will likely increase in many places; 3. storms will

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-54349010268270317082011-11-20T13:01:00.001-08:002011-11-20T14:17:50.358-08:00

The new climate events summary is probably the most massive update ever at blisterdata.  Striking about the climate- and environmental data stream over the past month is the rising tide of items on civil evolution versus disenlightenment.  There has never been so much attention to the cultural dimension of the biospherical transition as in this autumn. The transformation has now unfolded along

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-89124993140992862692011-11-13T14:11:00.000-08:002011-11-12T17:00:17.991-08:00

I first came across the term "American Disenlightenment" in a work by the intellectual Kevin Phillips.  Phillips is a critic of the zeitgeist; his writings mark him as a bit of a visionary, for he has a tendency of being always a little ahead of the curve.  His excellent Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism (London: Penguin) appeared in 2008,

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-56426420093755112272011-10-30T16:44:00.000-07:002011-11-11T14:10:50.909-08:00

The United Nations tells us that the world population will reach seven billion on Halloween.  A few months ago, the date of this milestone was not yet clear; it then seemed the crossing would occur sometime after this summer and before the next.  A bit more number-crunching put the event in focus (see pdf) and pins the milestone crossing to October 31 or thereabouts. This makes 2011 a

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-57505646260053752602011-10-16T12:32:00.000-07:002011-10-18T15:56:28.484-07:00

but what do they want? (full comic here) Occupy Wall Street has spread to all major cities in the U.S. and is now in the second month.  A friend of mine complained that the message of the movement is too one-dimensional and too clear-cut.  There are other things, next to economic injustice, that are also important, arguably even more so, such as climate change.  The irony, of course, is that

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-85839519537175066042011-10-09T21:37:00.000-07:002011-10-10T14:38:34.512-07:00

The great difference between this century and the twentieth century concerns the way we look at progress.  If there is one idea that serves as a point of reference for the paradigm shift, then it's this one.  About this idea, we can identify 'before' and 'after,' just as we can distinguish 'then' from 'now'. The transformation of the progressive idea coincides with the turn of the millennium

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-36260243707171748702011-10-02T19:39:00.000-07:002011-10-06T15:44:46.948-07:00

Four hundred people own half the wealth of this country.  All empirical studies show that trickle down Reaganomics is a lie. (And if you don't believe it, just take a look around).  The overclass sucks wealth out of the work done by the rest of us, the ninety-nine percent of wage earners, and this wealth is NOT coming back to the society.  The tax rate for the rich is a fraction of what it used

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-66312755327201821952011-09-25T15:44:00.000-07:002011-09-28T11:56:34.509-07:00

German liberals really want you to like them The Free Democratic Party (FDP, Freie Demokratische Partei) has been a mainstay of German politics.  In my senior high in Bavaria, the kids voting for the FDP were the ones with preppy outfits and blow-dried hair.  They were into money and the market.  For them, consumerism rocked. Liberals in Germany are how Republicans used to be

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-51358287145454994302011-09-18T17:04:00.000-07:002011-09-22T17:15:05.872-07:00

A propos being stuck in the tar pit: in the week after the 9-11 decennial -- a week with the Texas drought deepening to 'exceptional' levels; the Arctic melt either being the second worst ever or having set a new all-time record (depending on how the Bremen University data hold up); the polar climate having moved beyond the tipping point; and the U.S. House of Representatives now being 'the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-82981038435112439882011-09-11T00:04:00.000-07:002011-10-09T21:47:54.406-07:00

Ten years ago, an event happened that changed the course of history.  The attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the crash of flight United 93, and the abduction of flight AA 77 mark a day of suffering.  More suffering was to follow in the wake of the event: two wars and three far-flung military operations were launched in consequence. In October 2001, the first war began, in

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-35041130146340834632011-09-04T16:56:00.000-07:002011-09-04T11:16:41.654-07:00

Sometimes a picture does say more than a thousand words. The  quintessential information in the IPCC AR-4 report is packed in two graphs on emissions scenarios and surface warming.  Both are pretty old hats.  But this adds to their appeal, because they are dated in having been too cautious.  Climate change in the past decade has outpaced the worst of expectations.  Reality is more cartoonish than

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-90624149394118193532011-08-28T11:56:00.000-07:002011-09-03T16:58:28.732-07:00

-- Also posted at Common Dreams (Aug 30) -- Welcome back.  The events this summer make old warnings by the naturalist Lester Brown ring with meaning.  The foreword of his 1996 State of the World report begins as follows: As we complete the 13th State of the World, it is a dark time for environmental policy in Washington, threatening the U.S. leadership role on environmental issues.  Yet in many

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-50952855796491983922011-05-10T18:14:00.000-07:002011-05-10T23:28:32.664-07:00

We expect to be away and unplugged for about three months, and I wish everyone a happy and safe summer.  Before signing off, I would like to close the sequence of posts in this academic year with some questions about attribution. Attribution is the soft underbelly of global warming.  It is where deniers and skeptics strike rational blows below the belt.  Climate change is an ever more tangible

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-37947648756109210832011-05-04T16:34:00.000-07:002011-05-09T22:59:09.584-07:00

A new climate events post is at blisterdata.  All the warnings and predictions, dismissed by the American oligarchs and their Republican puppets, are in hindsight perfectly on track.  Climate change is unfolding ever faster.  I imagine we'll have less of a decade, maybe six, seven years on the outside, to initiate the revolutionary transition to a post-carbon civilization.  If we let this window

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-66060127862125678002011-04-29T18:50:00.000-07:002011-04-30T19:27:02.627-07:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata-- Sharpened 4-30 Drudge report, a popular US news site, couldn't resist spinning the weather crisis in denialist fashion.  Below headlines such as survivors pick up the pieces, now come the floods, storm death passes 300 in South, and deadliest swarm of twisters since 1974, the site added (screenshot above): SORRY, AL: tornadoes whipped up by wind, not

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-17992897353281577532011-04-23T18:32:00.000-07:002011-04-26T14:41:43.689-07:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata-- A new climate events post is at blisterdata.  The past decade was the hottest ever; last year was the hottest year on record; and this springs may shape up to be the most extreme spring on the books.  Extremes are quantifiable in terms of storm and flood damage, and loss in livestock and crops.  Historic storm clusters are a continent-wide unifier of

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-18150997092736107412011-04-16T17:07:00.000-07:002011-04-17T21:23:27.982-07:00

A new climate findings post is up at blisterdata.  I scrolled through recent issues of Nature and checked out items published elsewhere, as in Geophysical Research Letters and Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.  Two things stick out. One is China's new five-year plan (links in "mitigation").  It seems the communist leadership "gets it".   COP-15 raised question marks about China's conduct, but

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-86896475283814868972011-04-11T18:07:00.000-07:002011-04-11T18:24:24.484-07:00

--climate happenings are at the blisterdata-- Saying that the American disenlightenment is deepening doesn't even come close.   The fading substance of policy is painful to watch.  This may be symptomatic of the closing of a once open society, and perhaps this is normal when an old order yields to an oligarchy, but it's still a bummer. Exhibits of this disconnect from logic and reality are the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-20361056794600140072011-04-03T19:19:00.001-07:002011-04-03T19:22:37.285-07:00

At last, another climate findings post is at blisterdata.  My apologies for the long lull (the previous findings-post dates from January).  I was editing the climate issue of Journal of Global Ethics, which is forthcoming in May, I think.  Chen Xia (Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing) and I co-authored a paper for that issue on Daoist climate ethics. The climate findings column still needs

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-47947198148409623072011-03-30T20:35:00.000-07:002011-03-30T20:42:11.809-07:00

--climate happenings are at the blisterdata-- The following is a magnificient letter from Japan from a friend of a friend (thanks to Livia Kohn): "Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-81361882608883538562011-03-26T15:29:00.000-07:002011-03-27T10:44:30.982-07:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata-- (revised 3-27)Two weeks ago, on Friday, March 11, 2011, the Tohoku earthquake, as it is now known, spread from an epicenter offshore towards the northeast coast of Honshu island. With a magnitude of 9.0, the quake was one of the most massive ever recorded. Only three quakes had ever been discernibly stronger: the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean measuring

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-70337913295044611212011-03-13T10:52:00.001-07:002011-03-13T12:36:52.428-07:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata--How can the humanities help out with the crisis of society? In the debate at USF two weeks ago a key was offered by Gurleen Grewal (USF India Center). She took issue with the myopic Western emphasis of the sustainability discussion and proposed a question that matters, too: what is it that we do love?This gives us enough bits and pieces to pull it all

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-20254055833873146072011-03-05T10:32:00.000-08:002011-03-13T10:52:21.099-07:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata--The USF Humanities Center did a symposium on the crisis of the humanities (the 'Global Humanities Symposium'). I was on the "Cultural Sustainability" panel to say something about "thinking ahead--globalization, sustainability, and existence." I pulled out a few stats on the American Disenlightenment and Year One of the Long Emergency, and asked: how can

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-12375908519673234002011-02-28T13:01:00.000-08:002011-03-05T10:30:31.859-08:00

Yet another climate events entry is at the data bank; I'll add more info the next few days, but the data posted already jell into a gestalt worth writing about. I would have liked to post earlier, but this has been a tight and busy month. The editorial work on the climate ethics issue of Journal of Global Ethics is nearly done on my part. The Nietzsche essay is sent off. The tract on the climatic

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-50141504157903250292011-02-04T12:41:00.000-08:002011-03-05T10:31:09.340-08:00

A new climate events post is at the data bank.Most shocking: temps at Baffin Island near the magnetic Pole were thirty-nine (39) degrees Fahrenheit above "normal" for more than a month.Most troubling: last year's drought (second or third this decade) killed one billion (1,000,000,000) trees in the Amazon. The predicted biome flip of jungle to savannah may now have begun.Most breath-taking: while

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-59580203525010228662011-01-29T17:43:00.000-08:002011-01-31T17:43:40.825-08:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata--2010 was the hottest year on record. December 2010 had the smallest winter sea ice cover in the Arctic on record. Surface temperatures in Canada and Greenland in that month ran 8-11 C (15-20 F) above normal. In parts of the Arctic, surface temps have been 21 C (38 F) above normal for more than a month. Extremely mild temperatures in the far north cause

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-14426011710011293282011-01-21T17:23:00.000-08:002011-01-27T13:54:53.844-08:00

A new climate findings post is at the data bank. Instead of the usual setup -- the unfolding changes, understanding climate, mitigating the impacts, and civil evolution -- this is a research retrospective of the past year. Much of the post is the result of data-mining (info-scavenging? link-stealing?) of an excellent piece at Climate Progress. The regular surfer will have seen many citations here

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-19175905391257675462011-01-16T18:35:00.000-08:002011-01-16T19:45:35.605-08:00

--climate happenings are at blisterdata--The Climate Philosophy Newsletter 4 (2010-2011) is out. Climate Ethics is now officially a new branch on the tree of philosophy.The Newsletter raises the bar in several ways. Resistance against the new field is on the defensive and, I believe, weakening. It was now possible to add a link to climate philosophy to the homepage (bottom right) of the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-56505304451804977502010-12-24T15:07:00.000-08:002010-12-28T18:48:13.120-08:00

--climate happenings are at blister data --How come global warming involves winter cooling? Last winter, complicated explanations were making the rounds. Because warming is wiggly, said some. Because there's a third wiggle, said others. That's all true, but now we know better.In the past winter, J. Hansen et al. were saying that warming wiggles up but the zigzag of the seasons still out-wiggles

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-61925193590228460842010-12-18T12:56:00.000-08:002010-12-18T18:09:44.253-08:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--The 2010 United Nations climate change summit, also known as the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (in the acronym-happy UN, that's COP-16 UNFCCC), took place about 800 klicks or 500 miles from Tampa across the Gulf of Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula in Cancun Nov 29 to Dec 10. The

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-16214771862811692422010-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:002010-12-14T16:14:50.834-08:00

A new climate events collection is posted at blister data. Highlights? Events: climate amplitude widens; it's frigid in Florida & elsewhere.Trends: food situation worsens; jungles won't make it.American Disenlightenment: Republican skeptics take over climate, energy, environ panels; Wisc., Ohio reject high-speed rail funds; WikiLeaks shows how US & China sabotaged COP-15 Copenhagen.Global

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-25570370532774777162010-12-04T17:08:00.001-08:002010-12-04T17:16:16.573-08:00

A new climate findings collection has been added to blister data. First I wanted to scan the lit and post on the uneven sea level rise, but then I saw Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, with the papers of the Four Degrees and Beyond conference at Oxford. [4 C = 7.5 F] Basically, the window of a +2 C temp rise has closed. So we're now looking at what these articles are

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-63103635726350498102010-11-27T17:53:00.001-08:002010-11-27T18:02:20.485-08:00

A new climate events link collection has been added to blister data. The 2010 GHG data are in; we're at 387 ppm, highest concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases ever. Colder winters are to be expected now. Food prices are rising. South Dakota and other grain-belt states suffer freak weather. COP-16 in Cancun starts Monday.Seventy-three months left.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-13504660499678411552010-11-18T11:38:00.001-08:002010-11-18T13:16:29.967-08:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Not all U.S. Republicans are corrupt, dim-witted climate skeptics. Meet the exception: Rep. Bob Inglis, Republican of South Carolina, ranking member of the Energy & Environment Subcommittee, and a man of integrity, who went yesterday on record against deniers at a House Science subcommittee hearing on the science of climate change. The only buzz-kill is

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-38021260118412241372010-11-14T17:57:00.000-08:002010-11-14T19:30:26.770-08:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--The world economy is fragile but recovering. The US economy is troubled, not recovering. Asia-Pacific leaders met in India, Korea, and Japan in the past week, pledging, as the NYT notes, “to rectify global economic imbalances and move toward creating a regional free-trade zone.” President Obama was criticized for “failing to finalize a free-trade pact

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-56100827701018536002010-11-03T14:27:00.000-07:002010-11-05T15:30:58.649-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Disenlightenment deepened last night yet another notch. Der Spiegel calls the 2010 US midterm election an election of fury and writes (in German), "only two years after Barack Obama's victory of hope, the nation is demoralized, divided, and fuming. Now the angriest have screamed the loudest and managed to grab a seat at the table of power."The Guardian's

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-4875510240965925812010-10-24T14:23:00.000-07:002010-11-01T18:25:56.816-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Two trends are now set on collision course. One, climate change is accelerating and has entered runaway mode. Two, the top perpetrator, responsible for a third of cumulative world emissions, for the highest-per-capita share of emissions on the planet at present, and for the decade-long international policy stalemate, the United States of America, is

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-10154854272042410652010-10-08T11:35:00.000-07:002010-10-08T15:44:42.472-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Register your 10/10/10 event here...The empirical data are clear: the Macondo well blowout, Deepwater Horizon explosion, oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or whatever you call it, is the biggest environmental disaster in the history of the United States. It is also the largest marine oil spill in the history of human civilization.And it wasn’t an accident

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-89252382875433979442010-09-25T16:02:00.001-07:002010-10-03T18:11:21.726-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--(On second thought, slightly revised 1 Oct 2010...)News came in last Sunday, five months after the blowout, that the Macondo well is finally sealed. On 20 April 2010 the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded, killing eleven workers (plus two who died later) and leading to an out-of-control gusher at the bottom of the seafloor, 1,500 m deep and 66 km from

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-16828266808443282292010-09-18T11:21:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:42:47.909-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--More than 14 percent of the US population, I read in the NYT today (9.18.10, B Herbert, ”Two Different Worlds”), now lives in poverty. Yesterday I read in the Economist (9.9.10, Report on Latin America) that Chile's proportion of poor people has fallen to less than 14 percent.But this post is not about the Bush legacy. There's a bigger picture, of the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-18817482107694015632010-09-06T14:30:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:43:04.379-07:00

-- climate happenings are at the data bank --Surfing the data wave can sweep one into troubled waters. Contradictory swirls abound these days. One the one hand there's The Vanishing Face of Gaia (2009), the best yet of J. Lovelock's Gaia-series, a persuasive argument for why we are at the brink. Lovelock's views are shared by the likes of E. O. Wilson, J. Hansen, or the late S. Schneider.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-27226164644966035642010-09-01T13:49:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:43:13.586-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--After coming back from Asia, I screened the data flow about climate change and wrote up two posts on the data bank, one two weeks ago, another over the past few days. Point, as always, is to find a gestalt, of what's been happening to Mama Gaia over the summer. Backdrop of this gestalt is the just published NOOA report, the upshot being that 2009 was

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-71970474330351350882010-08-18T19:17:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:43:23.288-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Three months and a week the blog had lain dormant. Now summer recess is over. Fall term is about to start. And blistered orb is back.For archivists of these historic times and for philosophers wondering about the worldly wisdom of it all, 2010 does not disappoint. Wow!!! I mean look at this: atmospheric CO2 concentrations are creeping up to 390 ppmv

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-29418158986030410722010-05-10T17:12:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:43:36.245-07:00

-- climate happenings are at the data bank --Sometimes I hate myself. Like after picking up Newsweek in a store. Always, with yet another issue purchased, I hope I won't be let down this time, and that it'll be possible to tap into the US mainstream, finally approving of the establishment for once.Hah! Wish it were so. Usually the lies Newsweek spreads are white, small, and sneaky. But sometimes

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-24348246618375387332010-05-02T11:56:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:43:44.703-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--At sunset yesterday we ran on the beach towards Caladesi Island. We passed two wedding ceremonies along the way. Then happy tourists yielded to empty dunes sprinkled with cord grass and held down by joewood, and Republican mansions yielded to saw palmetto and cabbage palms. The natural preserve and bird sanctuary was as pristine and beautiful as usual.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-9768872432023546302010-04-22T17:31:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:43:53.014-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Different about this year’s Earth Day is that a new paradigm has emerged. It concerns meaning and purpose of environmental protection. It used to be about “saving the planet” (not that the planet cared; it was there before us and will be there after us), or, perhaps better, about saving the integrity of the biosphere. Problem was that in such rescue

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-22761822200985631082010-04-15T15:39:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:44:00.175-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Guest post by Dan Grifen:With spring, Earth Day also draws nearer (April 22nd); as individuals, we must remember and realize the importance of global warming and all of its implications. Topics discussed as of late include burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and green building. As nations like Haiti and Chile prepare for rebuilding and new

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-18435120417054929202010-04-15T15:22:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:44:08.263-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--Health Sherpa counts the blistered orb to the Top 50 Public Health Blogs. Listed in the Environment and Health category of the ranking, the blistered orb is described as "a scathing view of the current view on effects of global warming, along with citations."The Mad Hun is honored.Eighty months left.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-83580334548593472612010-03-27T12:35:00.000-07:002010-09-25T16:44:16.145-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--A startling piece of information in the data flow is on the partial collapse of western forest ecosystems. The great forest die-off, by Montana-based New York Times journo Jim Robbins, appeared first on 3-16 at Yale's Environment 360. This is what it says: Across western North America, from Mexico to Alaska, forest die-off is occurring on an

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-77604604340386623162010-03-18T14:40:00.000-07:002010-12-18T12:53:04.697-08:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--A season has gone by since the Copenhagen climate meeting. How do things look now?COP-15 ended on a jarring note. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the meeting would be problematic. The way police treated climate activists, and the manner people were left freezing in the cold, unable to enter conference facilities, not even permitted

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-45333385824546177702010-02-25T14:56:00.000-08:002010-09-25T16:45:28.028-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank-- In 2006 the previous Provost, who now plays for the Houston Oilers, destroyed the Environmental Science & Policy department, killed its accreditation, funds, and tenure lines, and downgraded the cold leftovers to an environmental option in the Geography Department. In 2010, two weeks ago, the present Provost, who does not play for the Oilers, unveiled

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-51528004939898090372010-02-08T17:22:00.001-08:002010-09-25T16:45:36.733-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank-- Sometime this month, I'd like to review the emerging consensus on Copenhagen. Right now, though, I wonder more about climate than about policy. Why is it so chilly? I was freezing in Munich three weeks ago; I was freezing in Osaka two weeks ago; I'm freezing in Tampa now. The citrus harvest is shot. The banana trees are dead. The palms are frost-bitten.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-4642800788773322462010-01-29T13:37:00.000-08:002010-09-25T16:46:04.352-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank-- Last week was spent with terrific hosts at Kobe University. One purpose of my visit was to do Philosophy with colleagues (the invitation, quite flattering, was to attend a workshop on my stuff). Another purpose was to sound out a partnership with South Florida. In two weeks, USF will open the School of Global Sustainability; courses for the MA degree

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-25817469639725392752010-01-17T17:25:00.001-08:002010-09-25T16:46:19.193-07:00

--climate happenings are at the data bank--The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) hosted a workshop-conference on climate and the humanities last week. Organizers were Dieter Gerten (PIK), Sigurd Bergmann (Norwegian U of Science & Tech), and Konrad Ott (U Greifswald). The theme was "Religion in Climate Change--Sufferings, Values, and Lifestyles".The meeting had encouraging vibes.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-86378294066980781852010-01-17T17:20:00.000-08:002010-04-15T15:57:52.994-07:00

The Mad Hun is back.Happy blogging, happy surfing, and happy new year!There'll be a change to the set-up of the blog: comments and thoughts will continue to be posted here. The link list of the monthly climate reviews will now appear at the blistered orb data bank.We have eighty-three months left..

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-14848631354191131482009-08-04T12:46:00.000-07:002009-08-04T12:57:36.632-07:00

By David Horsey (published 5/22/09 in the Seattle-PI newspaper)

Chris and Sarahnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-34293242786876290722009-06-25T17:24:00.000-07:002010-01-17T17:19:17.768-08:00

We have eighty-nine months left.The climate philosophy newsletter is now online.The Mad Hun will resume posting monthly reviews by January '10. 2009 is a historic year. We are approaching the tipping point now. Reason for a ecosophical revolution is more pressing than ever. According to the print edition of Scientific American Earth 3.0, Summer 2009, "View: The Efficiency Solution," p. 12-13,

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-82547808502886888832009-05-27T14:02:00.001-07:002009-06-01T15:19:47.775-07:00

-- updated 5/28, 5/31, 6.1. ---- thanks for all your links --We have ninety months left.Florida saw record heat in May followed by an early start of the rainy season. The SUV-induced drought continues; rainfall remains below average for the third year in a row, and the past dry season was the second driest on record. Local news mention neither climate change nor amerigenic causes. Ownership

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-11847319889185686272009-04-28T16:44:00.000-07:002009-05-03T18:45:25.693-07:00

--updated 4.30., 5.1., 5.3.----thanks for all your links--Spring is in the air, and with it, unease on how things will continue. America is becoming less sustainable by the month. Recognition suddenly dawns. A grassroots effort at changing things is converging with initiatives from the top. Green is the new bandwagon of the Global Village, and America is finding itself looking rather

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-83888264692184943532009-03-27T14:43:00.000-07:002009-04-05T10:52:29.981-07:00

-- updated, cleaned 3/30, 4/1, 4/2 ---- thanks for all your links --Global weather is being pushed farther out of whack. Atmospheric CO2 continues to rise. N2O and CH4 are joining the greenhouse fray. In climatology, event of the month was the Copenhagen congress. Consensus was that the AR4 is dated; it had been too conservative, too optimistic. The window of 2 C warming has now slammed shut. New

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-68902394598116501702009-02-27T13:15:00.000-08:002009-03-07T18:41:40.573-08:00

-- updated, revised 3/4, 3/6 --February 2009 was encouraging, inspiring, in a bracing sort of way. Obama acts as a Confucian gentleman. He responds to knowledge. He cherishes friends from distant places. He doesn't repay scorn with violence. And as Mencius counsels, he heeds the people.That cat can dance.This month's climate review suggests that information clarifies. Boundary conditions are now

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-3126857731454438622009-02-02T16:11:00.000-08:002009-02-03T07:53:36.044-08:00

January 2009 was a mind-blowing month. There's a chance that great wrongs will be set right. Yet, after all the good people celebrated the inauguration, I found myself choked up with anger. As I first emailed Scott Schneider, part of me had been hoping, until January 19, for at least a tiny sign that Bush, the climate-changer-in-chief, would be impeached. But it never happened. No impeachment for

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-32682115459117711812009-01-10T14:39:00.000-08:002009-01-11T16:20:24.609-08:00

The United Nations released the Human Development Report (HDR). There is the usual time lag from data collection (through 2006) to published interpretation (Dec '08). The last report, over a year ago, was Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world. The new one is On the Move. The focus is migration. It reflects the fact that global distributions of resources and cababilities are

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-70384177476091116352009-01-02T14:23:00.000-08:002009-01-02T18:35:40.353-08:00

It is herewith proposed that ...We shall return to the Principles of Justice.We pledgeto close our concentration camp;to abstain from torturing and special rendition;to refrain from ordering secret arrests and using secret evidence; andto rehabilitate innocents, such as USF Professor Sami Al-Arian.We shall rejoin the Global Village.We pledgeto reign in and supervise our corporations;to refrain

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-71889504012669415132008-12-22T16:01:00.000-08:002008-12-24T14:22:38.454-08:00

The Long Emergency is unfolding.Bushism has turned the US from a viable, productive society into a nonviable consumer culture. It almost seems as if the main products of the eight-year American Disenlightenment have been corpses for the Mideast and carbon emissions for the planet. The whole setup here is now an anthropological extreme. Is there another region in the developed world that is that

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-53012653160739855122008-12-12T15:20:00.000-08:002010-12-18T12:48:02.396-08:00

The Poznań Climate Conference ended in a jolt by UN Secretary-General Ban. A switchover to a new world order happened on 11-12 December 2008. With the events of the past eight years this jolt wasn't a big surprise. Still, viscerally, it feels like a sucker-punch."What we need, today, is leadership -- leadership by you," Ban said and went on: "We look for that leadership from the European Union."

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-34142264333109936742008-11-25T15:55:00.000-08:002008-12-10T12:53:21.181-08:00

This month's climate review reflects we enter a phase transition.Empirically, this is new: one, the 2008 hurricane season set a record. Two, the South Pole, until now defying the planetary trend, has started to heat up. Three, indications of an incipient poop loop continue to be published (see Ise, also Rigby). Next there are swirls over whether things are improving or getting FUBAR instead.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-41451512165323117932008-11-10T17:24:00.000-08:002008-11-12T14:11:18.177-08:00

The US election 2008 was historic. Despite some irregularities, it was no sham; it was an election. The vote was counted, unlike 2000, and polling data matched voting records, unlike 2004. Also unlike 2004 in Florida, electronic voting finally permitted paper receipts.The election marks the return to constitutional values and a retreat from the abyss approached since 2000. It also marks a U-turn

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-70784654163282458682008-10-22T17:38:00.000-07:002008-12-10T12:54:39.419-08:00

A few days ago I went to Lakeland, 50 km from USF. The only way to get there is by car. I felt stupid having to be on I-4. Why no train? There aren't high mountains and steep gorges in the way; it's all flat. Just lay track. Have a commuter bullet zip by every 15 min 24-7. Other countries can do it. Floridians, poor people, drive in their shiny bricks as if it was their religion. They are the car

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-51823732621955080002008-10-03T16:29:00.000-07:002008-10-26T14:12:51.816-07:00

Solving a problem requires the guts to see the problem. Trouble is, when the problem is scary, guts tend to be in short supply. No one likes to hear, “I think you got a problem, bud,” especially in a culture that considers itself as the solution to the world's problems. As it so happens, such trouble tends to end naturally. Problems, freely ignored and left untended, just fester out of sight.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-69686600571226630202008-09-18T12:02:00.001-07:002008-09-19T18:43:53.894-07:00

The UN talks at Accra went well (pdf), and progress was made in Ghana. Postmodern minds may be tempted to deconstruct the meaning of "progress." Yet human hopes, in the face of climate change, invest the word with a simple sense, its opposite being "regress".Possibly more significant than the good climate news from Africa are the bad climate news, from America, of the McCain/Palin ticket. McCain

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-53160323617985541972008-08-16T15:53:00.000-07:002008-10-13T09:53:41.443-07:00

After the corporate US media lifted climate censorship last month, a host of intelligent editorials on climate by US pundits appeared over the past few weeks. Scroll down to 'ENLIGHTENMENT' below.The first spate of reports about possibly apocalyptic ramifications of climate change have popped up in the mainstream news (8.11). At the same time, a poll this month (8.11.) shows that while eighty

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-64759869211559347022008-07-18T16:32:00.000-07:002008-08-13T13:41:55.646-07:00

Media in the US have begun free reporting on climate change -- corporate and federal censorship seems to have ended. July 2008 marks the date that even the infamous Drudge Report started to post unwarped news. As a result, reality denial is eroding. Climate discourse is expanding.Downunder, penguins are freezing in the rain. An ostensive definition of "global warming" would be to point to the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-28744492875896791682008-07-10T13:09:00.000-07:002010-12-18T12:54:23.947-08:00

** updated 7.15. **This post is a review of the climate ethics cover of June 08 Scientific American. The review -- please scroll down -- has three parts. Good News is on the context. Broome's Paper is on the text. Problems with the Paradigm is on the limitations.Note two newbies in Climate Philosophy Meets at right. There is a call for papers from the University of Central Florida, in Orlando (

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-41536556721864741182008-06-28T15:07:00.001-07:002008-10-26T14:12:22.290-07:00

-- post revised/updated 7.1 -- The Mississippi rushes through a break in a levee Events are unfolding. Trendlines are playing out. The 6.19. story in Scientific American confirms the title of the previous post (6.13.). Clairvoyance this isn't: eco-tailspins entail predictable information.Two items in Scientific American's June issue (vol. 298.6, 2008): Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-23928660955714690982008-06-13T18:36:00.000-07:002008-09-26T14:48:37.443-07:00

... by the Led Zep, from Four Symbols 1971A friend from the Johannes Kepler custodians advised me today,Don't criticize those who misuse levee funds on waging war; instead look for a home at least 10 ft above sea level. Don't warn of rising waters; instead buy yourself a house boat. Scold the Moron at the Helm from a school in the hills. Return to Bavaria and be 1,000 ft above sea level --'cos

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-87316192587522508912008-06-06T11:44:00.000-07:002008-10-26T14:12:11.810-07:00

. Sahara invading southeastern Spain, 6.2.08It seems the trends visible last year are settling in for the long haul. The crossing of all sustainable thresholds pushes prices ever higher.System failure has begun.At least the Paris-based International Energy Agency got down to brass tacks, hammering out a plan for the global energy revolution.In Germany, the Bonn Climate Change Talks 2008 opened on

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-37131877478755354702008-05-30T12:50:00.000-07:002008-09-26T15:03:10.552-07:00

.Remarkable in the past month had been the tacit admission that the Bush junta deserves no respect. From the "Neanderthal"-remark in the German government to the statement by Indian officials on Bush's "widely known ignorance" to the silence in Washington DC -- there is change in the air. A problem is being understood. Today (5.30) the New York Times reports that Under Pressure, White House

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-65390760122422238572008-05-22T18:13:00.001-07:002008-09-26T15:16:34.704-07:00

.Biospherical information appears to be jelling into a new structure. This new structure is bad news for many people. For some it means diminishing wealth; for others it spells longer odds for survival; for most if not all it represents decline. Yet this matrix reload carries the promise of hope. Finally things aren't ambiguous anymore.And clarity permits orientation at last. Even the US

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-51413605783927633162008-05-10T11:49:00.001-07:002008-09-26T16:07:36.702-07:00

.Today, on the way to campus, the long-desired finally happened.I saw another bicyclist.I cut across the 7-11 Citgo parking lot as usual, weaving my way through the gasoline stink of burbling behemoths, snarling SUVs, and humongous hummers. Confused carnivores yammering into cell-phones looked up to the posted prices: $ 3.71, $ 3.81, and $ 3.91, with diesel at the nearby Shell at $ 4.21. A

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-65024946306463304252008-05-07T09:44:00.000-07:002008-09-26T15:32:13.248-07:00

. Cyclone 01B was born on 4.27 in the Bay of Bengal, east of the Indian Ocean, as a depression that deepened later in the day. On 4.28, the infant storm, named "Nargis", hovered over warm ocean waters, gained strength, opened an eye, and grew to a category 1 hurricane. On 4.29, she moved westwards, intensified to category 2, and faced Bangladesh. Then her strength flagged, the eye blurred, and

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-86085214808687689722008-04-27T12:21:00.000-07:002008-10-26T14:11:59.026-07:00

.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

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-84899077208139576432008-04-22T18:44:00.001-07:002008-06-14T14:24:12.889-07:00

.Today was Earth Day. It was a beautiful day throughout. Now it's a few hours after dusk. A few hours after dawn, with the sun still hanging low in the sky, we headed out and into the forest near the river, a mix of oak-palm hammocks and sandy pine flatwoods. Trails are maintained by a group of mountain, uh, swamp bikers. They're nice and don't mind barefoot optimodal runners. I'm happy that more

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-73890867843548782502008-04-09T14:30:00.000-07:002008-12-12T21:04:25.385-08:00

.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

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-63428169623609251412008-04-01T14:34:00.000-07:002008-10-26T14:11:33.608-07:00

.March/April 08 Foreign Affairs 87.2 (2008): 63-77:Scott G. Borgerson "Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming"... quote I (first paragraph, p. 63):The Arctic Ocean is melting, and it is melting fast. This past summer, the area covered by sea ice shrank by more than one million square miles, reducing the Arctic icecap to only half the size it was 50 years ago.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-18541295283634529542008-03-30T12:04:00.000-07:002008-05-22T15:37:21.422-07:00

.The Times of London headlined last week, 3.25.08, "Britain is world's 7th most stable and prosperous nation". The article, by The Times' defence editor Michael Evans, refers to a report by Jane's Information Services, Ltd., and overseen by Christian Le Mière, managing editor of Jane's Country Risk. Evans' article lists the UK on place 7 and the US on 22, which relates to quantified rank (97 v.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-64457519455552342008-03-23T11:01:00.000-07:002008-10-26T14:11:15.667-07:00

.Freiburg, Germany, greenest city on the planet Observer 3.23.08American decline BBC Video 3.23.08Bush is the Devil Washington Post 3.23.08The Mayor of London's ecological vision Guardian 3.23.08New England sugar maples tapped one month earlier ... Rocky Mountain marmots emerge over a month earlier ... British goldfinches have stopped migrating south in winter Observer 3.23.08American news

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-76241916715735575542008-03-20T15:50:00.000-07:002008-06-03T19:15:23.869-07:00

.On Thursday, March 20, 2003, at 9:30 pm EST or 530 hours local time, bombs started falling on Baghdad. Nineteen days later, on April 9, U.S. marines secured the Iraqi Oil Ministry. Again three weeks later, on Mayday, the Climate-Changer-in-Chief appeared in uniform on the screens of a worried planet and declared the mission accomplished.Five years or one hundred thousand corpses later, Baghdad

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-2191523897673664182008-03-13T18:05:00.001-07:002008-06-14T18:52:54.544-07:00

.The markets worsen, despite a massive federal infusion of cash. The limits to growth, predicted by the Club of Rome a generation ago, appear to be reached. In the short run, this means suffering for many families. But in the long run ... ? I wonder. Will it be good or will it be bad? Might it not be an opportunity, at long last, for a new Enlightenment? And in the face of the ubiquitous,

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-2808015244684999562008-03-06T13:50:00.000-08:002008-09-27T16:07:47.119-07:00

.The markets are trembling.People work hard, lack time, lose money, and look at the sky.The US Oil War that began 20 March 2003 is approaching its fifth anniversary. The blood for oil trade continues. Carbon emissions keep going up and up and up. Noncombatants die at the hands of overweight soldiers who'd rather be home with their families. Meanwhile Baghdad's weather is turning a bit strange.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-56082145576673570752008-02-24T17:34:00.000-08:002008-06-01T15:59:38.942-07:00

.A well-informed, useful, and enlightening publication is Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy (London, 2007), 464 pp. It came out in 2006; this is an update. The subtitle says: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century.The author's blurb says, "Phillips, a former Republican strategist, has been a political and economic commentator for more than three

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-75660103914124138052008-02-18T14:26:00.000-08:002008-05-22T18:19:25.889-07:00

.While sifting the season's information flow, a few things got stuck in the sieve ...Union of Concerned Scientistscommon sense solution 1: the carscommon sense solution 2: the gridcommon sense solution 3: the homescommon sense solution 4: the treescommon sense solution 5: the visionsten personal climate solutionsThe news ...droughts in U.S., Mexico, Europe, Turkey etc. The Nation

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-8919051519778935002008-02-02T16:47:00.000-08:002008-05-22T18:19:56.225-07:00

.The February print edition of Scientific American has an article by Robin E. Bell, director of the Center for Rivers and Estuaries at Columbia U's Earth Institute, on an emerging reality in the context of climate change. The article, "The Unquiet Ice," in Sci Am 298.2 (2008): 60-67, in the public domain as a stub, is the latest word on what's happening.(1)Here's an attempt to parse the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-18983779035761643502008-01-23T17:13:00.000-08:002008-05-22T18:20:13.571-07:00

.Thoughts on Climate 2007--Making Sense of the Year of Records:OldBadgertoo muses, "America has always put its own national interest before that of everything else."Jonno interjects, "Psst, hate to tell you this but the USA don’t put its own interests first; it always puts Israel’s first."Not in climate policy! Israeli politicians know that global heating isn't in their national interest(source).

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-42984603748823369892008-01-22T15:54:00.000-08:002008-05-22T18:20:32.063-07:00

.I was happy that commondreams published the last post on 1/7/08. The editors put my blistered-orblet in great company -- just a day earlier, they had posted G. McGovern's Why I believe Bush must go. Thank you, Common Dreams.Thanks also go to the commentators on the site. I was moved by the grace, intelligence, and wit that pervaded the comments. I expected to be flamed by some warmongering,

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-51007140242476532442008-01-05T14:29:00.000-08:002008-05-22T18:20:55.524-07:00

.At the beginning of 2008, we're chugging out more CO2 emissions than ever; the world climate system has started to tip over; and it is on record that the USA torpedoed Bali -- a policy decision with historic consequences, which isolates America, and which means that U.S. citizens are now bearing a huge burden of guilt.Americans were outed at Bali as the planetary perpetrators of climate change.

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-5673868212907184582007-12-15T14:48:00.000-08:002010-12-18T12:55:17.568-08:00

.There's news from the Bali meeting. Highlights from the New Scientist blog (thanks to C. Brahic):Friday: Having being booed by representatives of over 150 countries and countless NGOs and observers, the government of the United States finally conceded to a global consensus on climate change at 14.20 local time on Saturday on the Indonesian island of Bali.Saturday: And then came the turn of the

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23496652.post-31804917685433370852007-12-12T12:56:00.000-08:002008-12-12T21:04:26.310-08:00

.-- Update 12/13:The Bali conference has been extended; a EU-led consensus of developing and developed nations has been reached; the U.S. is left behind as the last climate Humean of the planet; the U.S. pulls an Ayn Rand (the limp noodle version) and whines that saving world climate "would be too costly"; the UN thinks they're at the brink of agreement; but the U.S. rejects hard pollution limits

Mad Hunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05031454841438688448noreply@blogger.com0