Professor says climate change has unconsidered positive feedback

NYT In other words, warming begets more warming. We didn't think that much about this, and this is why the arctic ice melt was so extreme this summer that it was more than anyone expected (this post).

Arctic Ice Dramatically Receded this Summer

NYT It was beyond even pessimistic projections.

Corn ethanol a complete waste of time and taxpayer money

NYT The automobile blogger at the Times talks about a study showing corn ethanol reduces greenhouse gases from 0-3%. Sugar ethanol by 50-70%.

Once again on the carbon use tax by a Harvard economist

NYT Author makes an interesting point, that the sum of all tax receipts wouldn't change. It's just that they would be shifted around. So there would be a new carbon use tax, but it would be compensated by less income tax on individuals and businesses. Those businesses and individuals generating a lot of carbon dioxide -- basically big energy consumers -- would pay up the nose. But okay, it could be phased in gradually so that people with those high consumption rates could plan to become more efficient.

Demand for biofuels causes forest clearing

Link And so it might be net negative for global warming.

Drought in the West continues (updated)

Link One alarming fact is that the Colorado supply will be exceeded by demand in five years.

-- Updated 7/9/07

NewsHour guest talks about how one degree difference matters greatly to Sierra snow and snowmelt. In current drought, water supplies become more scarce and fires more prevalent and difficult to stop.

Democrat talks about Carbon Use Tax

Link Of course, the use tax is another tax. But Economists believe a use tax is more beneficial and effective than cap and trade. Cap and trade is like an incremental tax based on government managed and estimated usage levels and potential efficiencies. If the whole of carbon-dioxide generation was taxed then solar, wind, and nuclear would become much more competitive.

On a related note, Economist talks about wind and solar as if people didn't realize the fuel is free. I would think that much was obvious, no?

Congress to finally go after the oil company subsidies

Link Previous incentives to increase domestic production will be replaced with alternative fuel research funding.

Fallacy: Trading safety versus fuel efficiency in cars

Link Interesting that Honda agreed that no such tradeoff was necessary. The US automakers are pushing back hard. Probably Toyota is quietly in the same camp as Honda.

China talks about climate change

Link Perhaps it's just political posturing, but China seems to be taking a stance -- although a weak one -- on preventing damage to the environment through climate change.

EPA needs to regulate warming gases

All over the news: the Supreme court says EPA needs to do something about carbon dioxide and methane. Now, let's see if the Bushies actually do something. I can see a lot of feet dragging, half measures and excuses coming.

Ethanol a red herring

A lot of news items have come from Bush's trying to 'encourage' automakers to make E85 compatible cars. But where is all the ethanol for these cars going to come from? More subsidies for corn which is already heavily subsidized? Several articles have stated that the economics of ethanol as a fuel aren't good. We have to heavily subsidize the crop and in actuality put in 75% or more of the energy we get out of it. Perhaps this can be drastically improved, but aren't we putting the cart before the horse. Shouldn't we make it economically viable without subsidies before encumbering automakers with switching costs.

The Sierra club says that automakers get out of the CAFE (fuel efficiency) standards with an E85 loophole. This is a very bad thing.

-- Updated April 2

Well now that I think about it, perhaps 25% efficiency isn't too bad. But you are trading off huge amounts of potential actual food production for ethanol production. I still think it only sounds good if there's more like 50% or better efficiency. Somebody should do a full on cost/joule on solar vs wind vs ethanol taking into account fixed costs like solar panels, turbines, farm machinery.

Climate change in Arizona highlands

Link More fires, droughts, endangered species, and higher temps potentially point to climate change. Like the poles, it seems high altitude ecosystems can witness massive changes with small temperature shifts.

Biofuels could be created efficiently by adding hydrogen

Link Hmmm, interesting ideas on biofuels. You could perform electrolysis on water to get hydrogen and then use it to convert biomass to alcohol?

Climate change affecting property values?

Permalink Some serious thoughts about property around Manhattan and how it might be affected by storm surge.

La Nina coming

NOAA says La Nina may come in the next couple months. This could increase the possibility of hurricanes in the Atlantic back to 2005 level.

Warmer winters bring reduced maple syrup yields in US

Permalink Another global warming impact. Maple syrup production may entirely move to Canada.

More people agree on evidence of global warming

Link I'm biased in favor of scientists, but I would say that even skeptical people might believe in global warming from human burning of fossil fuels based on the evidence presented.

-- updated 30 Jan

Permalink Scientists imagine impacts from global warming. One which surprised me: the Mediterranean will become unbearable in summer.