Global Warming: Hell And High Water
Global Warming: Hell And High Water
The book that gave birth to ClimateProgress, Hell and High Water: Global Warming — The Solution and the Politics, is out.
In the book, I expose the tactics of conservative politicians who deny the science and delay genuine action on alternative energy initiatives. I examine the media’s sloppy reporting and unwillingness to probe behind the rhetoric.
The book discusses the country’s future if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted immediately. I explain why the environment is subject to vicious cycles whereby an initial warming change leads to further warming. The oceans, soils, Arctic permafrost, and rainforests may eventually become sources of greenhouse emissions and I discuss how sea levels are on course to rise high enough to swallow up numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts by 2100.
The larger point is that strategies to combat climate change are all technically possible and can significantly slow global warming while also buying more time for the world to develop new technologies and a consensus for even stronger action. The book lays out a number of key solutions to avoiding a climate catastrophe, including:
– capturing carbon dioxide from coal plants and storing it underground
– building 1 million large wind turbines
– launching massive energy-efficiency programs for homes, office buildings, and heavy industry
– increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks to 60 miles per gallon while also equipping them with advanced hybrid technology
– ceasing all tropical deforestation.
ClimateProgress.org will be featuring excerpts of the book for the next few weeks.
– Joe Romm
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I already get my power from wind. Great technology and no excuse not to adopt it.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:07 pmBy 2100, sheeeat, we’ve only been around for 200 years, we’ll be done from burning the candle at both ends before that happens.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:08 pmGreat, and imagine all the new jobs/industries that we could create, WHILE SOLVING THE PROBLEM, or at least trying to.
Sorry fossil fuel industry, adapt or DIE.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:09 pmSomething in the fiction section.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:27 pm– increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks to 60 miles per gallon while also equipping them with advanced hybrid technology
– ceasing all tropical deforestation.
Good luck on those ones.
Great technology and no excuse not to adopt it.
January 4th, 2007 at 5:29 pmComment by Hardy Haberman
Probably living in a place where no important winds are available.
Something in the fiction section.
Comment by Kevin
You mean that place where you get your political ideas?
January 4th, 2007 at 5:35 pm“The bok that gave birth to…”
January 4th, 2007 at 5:39 pm– capturing carbon dioxide from coal plants and storing it underground
WTF? Are we supposed to take this seriously. And that’s the number 1 solution?
– increasing the fuel efficiency … while also equipping them with advanced hybrid technology
Increasing fuel efficiency sure, but putting “advanced” (whatever that means) hybrid technology on every vehicle? Why? So we can all drive SUVs and feel good about ourselves?
I agree there is a problem and we need to solve it. I also agree solving the problem will create jobs and will be good for the economy, but this post just seems silly.
January 4th, 2007 at 6:11 pmHaberman – are you from / did you live in Chicago in the 80’s??
January 4th, 2007 at 6:30 pmWhat a great ad for your book, Mr. Rommm! ClimateProgress, CampusProgress….what’s next, Relationship Progress, ParentProgress…..or how progressivism saved the planet by neutering mankind.
January 4th, 2007 at 7:04 pmma, you’ve got a few good ideas there! thanks for sharing!
January 4th, 2007 at 7:44 pmAmerica is a CRAZY place.
As I write this, there are 12 posts discussing environmentalism. THERE ARE CURRENTLY 113 POSTS DISCUSSING THE MUSLIM FAITH.
John
January 4th, 2007 at 9:08 pmYou know, I was thinking if we used draft turbines (As the huge amount of draft one gets in tall buildings) instead of wind turbines, it would be much more feasible and could be used in places that don’t have steady winds. Also we could use solar heating (like a chimney) to make the updraft more efficient.
Just an Idea.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:24 pmWhat a great ad for your book, Mr. Rommm! ClimateProgress, CampusProgress….what’s next, Relationship Progress, ParentProgress…..or how progressivism saved the planet by neutering mankind.
Comment by mighty aphrodite
Do you ever stop being negative MA?
How about Cimate Course?
Or Climate Surge?
Or maybe Climate Compassion?
January 4th, 2007 at 9:27 pmWind turbines…Awesome… How about some in my homestate of MA…right off the cape… oh wait.
Maybe some over here…oh wait.
over there…oh wait.
So yeah…we should build 1 million of them…just make sure they’re in no one’s back yard.
How about Northern Alaska…perfect…no one lives there… oh wait…Forgot…can’t be near any other living thing…but yeah…we gotta have ‘em.
…And that nuclear waste dump too…need it…so long as it’s not within 100 miles of any person, any person’s view, or any living organism….Got it all figured out haven’t we.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:56 pmHal
I live in AZ, Global warming sucks here.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:49 pmYes Hal we pick up on how you are one of the few folks from the Right, who happen to be capable of sarcasm and irony.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:52 pmShameful
Comment by halbert holmert
You left out Katrina.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:53 pmWhy do people think this is a liberal-conservative thing. Why should we not save our society and economy? Also why are so many people so reluctant to believe the overwhelming majority of scientists on this? I’m not saying we need a concensus to agree or disagree but this concensus means that each scientist has reviewed data and reached the same doom conclusion. And their conclusions, in the form of vetted peer-reviewed papers have been approved. Oh yeah, because 50% or there abouts of US citizens are fat ignorant and lazy. By the time GW is full blown we will not be in charge of the world. This is ready clear. Sad.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:54 pmStop standing in the way of progress progressives
Comment by hal holmert
Humans don’t create oxygen Hal, something your V10 desperately needs to operate.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:56 pm21
Lincoln,
This is also why the fundies get such a foothold in politics. Half the eligible voters don’t vote, and they sure aren’t the fundies. Regular people far outweigh the fundy population, problem is, half of them don’t vote. This is how we will go down, apathy, ignorance, laziness.
January 4th, 2007 at 11:00 pmGood one Zep Tepi.
January 4th, 2007 at 11:05 pmLiving in south Fl fot 30 years the only people swimming in the sea in January. People we’re slightly blue or definitley drunk. The ocean is hot not luke warm but hot we’ve not had a a cool day in years. when you work outside especially on roofs you yearn for the middle of october to usher in a little relief not so pal ever drink a gallon of water pus in January do’nt
January 5th, 2007 at 12:34 amthink it’sgetting warmer come ring my shirt in the middle of January.
How did I not know about ClimateProgress before?! I love it!
January 5th, 2007 at 4:41 amTo Use only alternate energy i.e natural resources fuels(ethnol, bio-diesel. etc.,) for vehicles, houses and offices(solar panel). wind mill energy. Use of Battery operated vehicles. All the ways to reduce GLOBAL WARMING
January 5th, 2007 at 8:08 amHaHaHaHa
Doing whats right, and doing what is financially condusive, are often two entirely different things..
The average man enjoys the power and ease of Petrol, and is generally weary of anything Electric due to a multi-billion dollar advertisement blitz that BP and Citgo pay for.
I think getting our gasoline domestically produced would be a more realistic step in the right direction.
or, we can keep paying exorbenent prices on foreign gas, have a different blend for each state, and allow Mexico and Venezuela to drill five miles off the coast of Texas where its ILLEGAL for domestic corporations to do so..
The energy market, is very simply a racket, and I don’t think that Alternative Energy is Viable in this decade..
The electric car has a single charge range of only 60 miles, and windfarms have zoneing issues, nobody wants to look at them..and they aren’t PROFITABLE….so, ya know, kinda tough to find venture capitalists..
my rant/
January 5th, 2007 at 8:44 amRehashes a lot of what James Howard Kunstler has foretold in his book The Long Emergency. Check out http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/
January 5th, 2007 at 9:59 amThis may be a stupid question, but could global warming slow down the earth’s rotation?
I think of it almost like a figure skater doing a twirl: the more tighly she holds her arms in to he body, the faster she spins, the more loosely, the slower.
As the ice caps continue to melt and more and more water moves from the poles to the equator, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the earth could actually slow down and days would become longer, even if by just a few minutes?
Think of the cost of replacing all those clocks and watches…staggering (wink).
January 5th, 2007 at 11:37 amI don’t know about global warming slowing the earth’s rotation but my understanding is that it will definitely (probably already is) slow down the ocean currents.
From what I know that is not a good thing because one of the effects of the “conveyer belt” current is the way it moderates the planet’s weather.
Which means that, ironically, some countries may experience colder winters in the future. Europe in particular.
Very scary stuff indeed.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m pretty worried about this coming summer. Could be a hot one!
January 5th, 2007 at 1:00 pm