Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1102

September 10, 2010

Energy and Global Warming News for September 10th: Bees stung by 'climate change-linked' early pollination; Fungus genes help turn grass into ethanol; World Bank hires Kammen as clean-energy lending czar

Bees stung by 'climate change-linked' early pollination:  Climate change may be causing flowers to open before bees emerge from hibernation leading to declines in pollination, new research suggests

Climate change could be affecting pollination by disrupting the synchronised timing of flower opening and bee emergence from hibernation, suggests new US-based research.

Declining numbers of bees and other pollinators have been causing growing concern in recent years, as scientists fear that...

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Published on September 10, 2010 08:17

Some pundits challenge my statement, "Future generations are likely to view Obama's choice of health care over energy and climate legislation as a blunder of historic proportions." - Here's why they are wrong

Climate Fail

Last week, I blogged on David Brooks' counterfactual in which Obama tackled energy before health care.

I broke a cardinal rule of blogging — well, it would be a cardinal rule if blogging had any — in that I made a sweeping statement, but sent folks to my earlier post, "The failed presidency of Barack Obama, Part 1," for the defense of that statement.  Few people click on links.  That is life on the blogosphere.

That said, I've been making the same essential point for a long time now — see my...

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Published on September 10, 2010 07:10

Deutsche Bank: "Human-made climate change is a serious long term threat"

Global financial giant Deutsche Bank has crushed the climate skeptics in a new paper released today, finding that "human-made climate change is already happening and is a serious long term threat."  Wonk Room'sBrad Johnson has the story.

The bank's DB Climate Change Advisors, working with the Columbia Climate Center at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, reviewed the suite of skeptic claims — that global warming is a hoax, natural, or good for people — and found no evidence to...

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Published on September 10, 2010 04:57

No on California Prop 23: When it comes to climate policy, reversing course is the real job killer

No to Proposition 23!Today's guest CAP bloggers are Van Jones and Jorge Madrid.

Defenders of dirty energy like to pretend that having smarter climate policies (and more support for clean energy) would cost Americans jobs. Not only are they wrong, but – according to prominent business leaders this week [and a new study] – their "deny and delay" tactics are now turning out to be the true job killers.

Business leaders appearing in a town hall style panel this week at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las...

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Published on September 10, 2010 04:46

September 9, 2010

Serreze: Arctic is "continuing down in a death spiral. Every bit of evidence we have says the ice is thinning."

UPDATE:  National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) director Mark Serreze slammed the anti-science disinformers yesterday:

There are claims coming from some communities that the Arctic sea ice is recovering, is getting thicker again. That's simply not the case.  It's continuing down in a death spiral.


Every bit of evidence we have says the ice is thinning.  That means there's less energy needed to melt it out than there used to be.

Certainly the latest analysis from the  Polar Science Center ...

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Published on September 09, 2010 13:00

NSIDC scientist: This year's rapid Arctic melt "suggests that the ice may have been on the thin side"

Arctic sea ice continues to shrink apace as we approach the dramatic end to this year's melt season.  The National Snow and Ice Data Center tells me  extent dropped to 4.76 million square kilometers today — which is below the majority of even the most recent expert predictions logged with the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH).

Here's one of the sea ice graphs on the web I haven't posted before, from the University of Bremen (click to enlarge), one of the resources that SEARCH

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Published on September 09, 2010 13:00

Science scorned: The journal Nature warns, "The anti-science strain pervading the right wing in the United States is the last thing the country needs in a time of economic challenge."

US citizens face economic problems that are all too real, and the country's future crucially depends on education, science and technology as it faces increasing competition from China and other emerging science powers….  Yet the public often buys into anti-science, anti-regulation agendas that are orchestrated by business interests and their sponsored think tanks and front groups.

That's from a powerful editorial published today by the journal Nature titled, "Science scorned" (subs...

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Published on September 09, 2010 10:44

The coming climate election: Tea party extremists backed by Big Oil and corporate polluters want to stop and then reverse all efforts to advance clean energy or avoid catastrophic global warming

The chattering class predicts this will be the year of the Tea Party because its members feel more passion about their issues. Despite repeated blows to its moral during the past year, the climate action movement must not lose its passion — or this November's elections.

Guess blogger Bill Becker is Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project,

On November 2, America's attention will focus on the mid-term elections for Congress. But those of us who believe government must...

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Published on September 09, 2010 09:42

The WashPost gets it wrong again: The replacement of old technologies by new ones drives growth

Guest blogger Kate Gordon is CAP's VP for Energy and Climate Policy.

In yesterday's Washington Post, Peter Whoriskey argues – predictably for the Post these days – that making lightbulbs more efficient puts Americans out of work.  The last US-based GE factory to make old-school incandescent lightbulbs is going out of business, and here is Whoriskey's explanation:

During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green...

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Published on September 09, 2010 09:05

Energy and Global Warming News for September 9th: China Skirts trade rules on clean energy; California close to approving 4,300 MW solar by year's end

… much of China's clean energy success lies in aggressive government policies that help this crucial export industry in ways most other governments do not. These measures risk breaking international rules to which China and almost all other nations subscribe, according to some trade experts interviewed by The New York Times.


On Clean Energy, China Skirts Rules

Changsha and two adjacent cities are emerging as a center of clean energy manufacturing. They are churning out solar panels...

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Published on September 09, 2010 08:44

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