Media & Communications

The Tropics – A Two Step Transition

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As someone who has spent the past quarter of his life in the lower latitudes, the fancy footwork and the tropical rhythms still present a bit of a challenge on the dance floor. All the same, when I see my peak oil-aware brethren struggling to define and implement the best way to achieve a lower carbon future, I feel a bit of confidence that in this corner of the world, we are a couple of steps ahead of our temperate climate cousins. At times the contrasts are striking, at times comic.

Climate & environment – Aug 27

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-As Arctic Ocean warms, megatonnes of methane bubble up
-Ocean Temperature Record and Other Clues: What Is Your Response?
-A ‘Dow Jones’ For Climate: The Case for a Warming Index
-Africa seeks climate change cash
-Top U.N. climate scientist backs big CO2 cuts, 350-ppm goal
-Think health costs are hot now? Factor in global warming
-The fallacy of climate activism

Upgrading the Way We Do Politics

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Town hall meetings being held on health care legislation across the country are exploding with emotion, frustration, and conflict. Citizens are showing up in throngs to speak out, and sometimes to shout, about health care—turning the meetings into a vivid demonstration of what’s missing from American democracy.

Nuclear Weapons and ‘Fourth Generation’ Nuclear Power

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‘Integral fast reactors’ and other ‘fourth generation’ nuclear power concepts have been gaining attention as potential contributors to climate change abatement, in part because of comments by US climate scientist James Hansen. However, nuclear power could at most make a modest contribution to climate change abatement, and all nuclear power concepts fail to address the single greatest problem with nuclear power − its repeatedly-demonstrated connection to the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.