Quotabull

Our purpose is, and has always been, to ensure a civil and safe environment where the many types of campus activities and open discourse can occur.
— University of Florida Police Chief Linda Stump. According to an Oct. 25 Associated Press story: “University of Florida police were justified in using a Taser against a student who [...]

Fire in the western United States

For anyone concerned about the fires burning in San Diego county (by far the most serious of the southern California fires), here are two more links: the Union-Tribune’s breaking news site at Blogspot and the official San Diego County emergency site.
In the western United States, fire is a major threat to life and property, [...]

I’m a carboholic, and so are you

What, precisely, is a carboholic? When I first read the title of today’s guest column in the Washington Post (“We’re Carboholics. Make Us Stop.), I initially thought I was about to read a column on the poor dietary habits of U.S. citizens. But no, the author was actually David Crane, the CEO [...]

Debunking more global heating denier myths - the second major update complete

A month ago, I completed a significant update to the anti-global heating denier myths post I did in July. I’ve just completed the second major update to that post, adding many images and adding two new debunked myths.

I added images cut out of referenced papers and from the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report to Myths [...]

Quotabull

I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot. I do a lot of crying in this job. I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count, as president. I’ll shed some tomorrow.
— President Bush in in one of six roughly hourlong interviews with book author Robert Draper.
I made a decision [...]

It’s 2030 - do you know where your Arctic ice cap is?

The Arctic Sea is losing summer sea ice. This statement alone is hardly newsworthy. But today, the Guardian reported that the amount of ice in the Arctic this summer has fallen to a record low, opening the Northwest Passage around the northern coast of Canada to shipping without an icebreaker for the first [...]

Debunking global heating denier myths updated

Nearly a month ago, I wrote a point-by-point debunking of the top 17 global heating denier myths I had heard. As a result of all the comments I received, I’ve decided to keep the original post updated with new information and data, improved arguments, clearer language, and additional denier myth debunkings as new myths [...]

Hagel-Dodd bill to fix infrastructure a limited vision of the task

At least one candidate and one almost-was candidate for president in 2008 believe that the United States cannot afford — through federal funding — to pay for desperately needed repairs to 160,000 bridges nationwide and other just-as-critical infrastructure needs. They want to privatize much of it, although they label the effort a “partnership.”
Sen. Christopher Dodd [...]

The House energy bill - two steps forward, two steps backward

I’m trying to determine whether the state of the House energy bill means that Speaker Pelosi won some hard compromises, or whether she was handed her head, politically speaking. It may be some of both, although I’m presently leaning toward the latter.

Toyota’s new plug-in Prius

Hybrid vehicles are a big deal, reducing oil consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. But plug-in hybrids are even better, especially since electricity is cheaper and the CO2 is localized to a power plant where, theoretically, it could be captured and sequestered. Plug-in hybrid vehicles are like your standard hybrid, but you can [...]

Anti-global heating claims - a reasonably thorough debunking

[Updated 9/15/07: Added myths #19 & #20, climate predictions aren't possible and volcanoes emit more CO2 than people, respectively]
[Updated 9/14/07: Updated Myths #4, 8, 10, & 13]
The Earth is heating up, and human beings burning fossil fuels are the dominant cause. It’s not ocean warming that dominates, it’s not cosmic rays, it’s [...]

A proposal for a progressive agenda

Over the course of the last several years, we have experienced the results of failed Republican policies. The subjugation of all other foreign policy objectives to national defense has created a situation where we are literally less safe for having our soldiers fighting abroad1. Lower taxes are bankrupting the government, leading to a [...]

Climate wedges - one way to cut carbon emission

Back in January, I wrote a peice on my personal blog The Daedalnexus titled A Sane(r) Energy Policy where I discussed the idea of “carbon wedges” that has been developed by the Carbon Mitigation Initiative of Princeton University. In a nutshell, each carbon “wedge” represents roughly 25 Gigatons (25,000,000,000 tons) of carbon that isn’t emitted [...]

House members opposed to energy reform stand down for now

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged that Speaker Pelosi was having to come down on two of her senior Democrats in the House because they were trying to strip away some states’ ability to enforce environmental regulations stricter than federal regulations. Yesterday, Rep. Dingell (D-Michigan) and Rep Boucher (D-Virgina) backed down and submitted [...]

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Food and its discontents

Michael Pollan’s delectable new book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, examines the wretched state of modern agriculture—and the unhealthy relationship most of us have with what we eat—by tracing the origin and consumption of four very different meals. He concludes that Americans now live in a wasteland of bland, interchangeable commodities, dominated by monocultured corn and fueled [...]