Major Critic of Global Warming Changes Course

August 30, 2010 Leave a comment

If true, this change will place many climate change doubters to rethink their views.

The world’s most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is “undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today” and “a challenge humanity must confront”, in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.

Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled “sceptical environmentalist”…is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.

But in a new book to be published next month, Lomborg will call for tens of billions of dollars a year to be invested in tackling climate change. “Investing $100bn annually would mean that we could essentially resolve the climate change problem by the end of this century,” the book concludes.

via Bjørn Lomborg: $100bn a year needed to fight climate change | Environment | The Guardian.

Filed under Environment, International

Gulf Microbe Study Was Funded by BP

August 26, 2010 Leave a comment

It is worth knowing that the apparently important reports that the oil had disappeared, consumed by microbes, came from research funded by BP.  Hardly gives us encouragement about the results, does it.

Earlier this week, major news outlets ran with headlines about how a new microbe has been found eating up BP’s oil, and how microbes have degraded the hydrocarbons so efficiently that the vast plumes of oil in the Gulf are now undetectable. No joke.

…

MIT’s Science Tracker, in a post published yesterday, noted that the microbe study was conducted by U.C. Berkeley scientists through a grant with the Energy Biosciences Institute, and that the Energy Biosciences Institute is funded by none other than BP, through a $500 million, 10-year grant. (To the researchers’ credit, they also mentioned the funding in their press release — you just had to read about three-quarters of the way through.)

via Take It With a Grain of (Sea) Salt: Gulf Microbe Study Was Funded by BP – ProPublica.

Filed under Environment, Florida

For Global Warming Doubters in Coral Gables

August 14, 2010 Leave a comment

For those of you who still have doubts about global warming and might have thought that the warming had stopped in the late 1990’s.

To properly understand what’s happening to our climate, you have to consider the full body of evidence. Most arguments that support climate skepticism have one thing in common — they neglect the full body of evidence and cherry pick just the select pieces of data that support a particular point of view. There is one argument that is so misleading — it requires 3 separate levels of cherry picking. This argument is “global warming stopped in 1998“.

via Yes, global warming has continued since 1998 « Climate Progress.

Filed under Environment

Everglades on UNESCO Danger List

July 31, 2010 Leave a comment

It is relevant that the US has requested that the Everglades be placed on the list.  This is evidence that perhaps international assurances are needed to get the Everglade restoration project going.

At a meeting in Brazil, …the Everglades had been added to the List of World Heritage in Danger at the request of the US government because of “serious and continuing degradation of its aquatic ecosystem”.

…

Agricultural and urban development were the main reasons for the decrease in water flow and increase in pollution levels, Unesco said.

It is the second time the Everglades, home to 20 endangered species, have been added. The wetlands were first classified as at risk between 1993 and 2007 after being devastated by Hurricane Andrew.

via BBC News – Everglades and Madagascar forests on Unesco danger list.

Filed under Environment, Florida

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