Climate & Environment Review: May 31, 2006

Climate & Environment Review: 2nd Edition
May 31, 2006

Climate & Environment Weekly is brought to you by The Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP). CSPP is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization.

CSPP relies on scientific experts in many nations and the vast body of peer-reviewed literature to help lawmakers, policy makers, and the media distinguish between scientific findings that are agenda-driven and those that are based on accepted scientific methods and practices. In a timely manner, the Center's Science Watch Team alerts policy makers, the media, and the public to unreliable scientific claims and unjustified alarmism which often lead to public harm. We strive for a fair and balanced examination of science.

More Evidence of Arctic Warmth (a long time ago)
There are a lot of folks running around shouting that recent Arctic warming is, to use a favorite alarmist word, “unprecedented”—which means, to them at least, that we are approaching “dangerous” levels of climate change. It seems a bit odd to equate “unprecedented” with “dangerous,” since the former implies something that is novel, while the latter implies something that is known. So, for instance, since we know that for a good 90% of the past 400,000 years the earth was locked into ice age conditions, it would seem that a “precedented” cooling would be perceived to be far more “dangerous” than an “unprecedented” warming, wouldn’t it? But we digress... >>Read More<<

RISING GAS PRICES, FEAR OF ECO-LAWS SPUR US COAL RUSH
U.S. power companies are rushing to build coal-fired plants, in part because they are hoping to get them on the books ahead of potential U.S. regulations on greenhouse gases, the author of a book on the coal industry said in an interview... >>Read More<<

Ignoring Science?
Protesters Call for Resignations, Say Government Ignoring Global Warming Effect on Hurricanes
May 31, 2006 — - To anyone who spent time watching hurricane forecasts last summer, Max Mayfield may seem like a hero. The director of the National Hurricane Center predicted many of the season's worst storms... >>Read More<<

TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO SAVE THE PLANET (ONE SUGGESTION FROM THE EU)
Nearly ten years after the Kyoto accords, our planet continues to careen helplessly toward certain environmental destruction. The skies are choked with pollutants. Polar bears are plunging through the thinning ice caps. Ben Affleck is still having problems finding a decent comeback project... >>Read More<<

INSURERS MAY CASH IN ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change isn't just a crisis. It's a business opportunity--at least in the view of insurance industry leaders, who are mapping out a strategy that could force the rest of the economy to grapple with global warming as never before... >>Read More<<

PROTESTERS DEMANDING THE RESIGNATION OF SCIENTIST FOR IGNORING SCIENCE THAT DOESN'T EXIST
When I read this the first two times I thought it came from The Onion, but apparently it's true... >>Read More<<

NUCLEAR POWER COMPANIES DEMAND FREE CARBON CREDITS
EDF Energy chief Vincent de Rivaz has stated that financial backing for new nuclear build would require nuclear power to be classified as a non-carbon-emitting form of generation within the European emissions trading scheme (ETS). However this would then amount to a subsidy of nuclear by fossil-fuelled power plants... >>Read More<<

2 Studies Link Global Warming to Greater Power of Hurricanes
Climate researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology separately reported new evidence yesterday supporting the idea that global warming is causing stronger hurricanes... >>Read More<<