So you want some do-it-yourself climate solutions. Popular Science is the place to go.

The magazine details how, for $300, you can build a vertical wind turbine (pictured below) for your home in about 3 days. It will generate 50 kilowatt-hours per month, which might be about 10% of your electricity use, depending on the size of your house and how efficient you are. You can also download plans at windstuffnow.

Or maybe you want something a tad bit easier to make, something to “keep your gadgets powered even when the grid fails you.” Follow these instructions, and for a mere three hours in work and $150 in parts, you’ll have your very own solar charger (pictured below).

But don’t worry, Denyers, it’s all just a grand coincidence that global warming theory predicts record rainstorms and flooding. The fact that the British and the Chinese link their record flooding to global warming should not stop us from burying our head in the sand mud. Still, the news from the Midwest is harsh:

Ferocious thunderstorms, heat and humidity added to the Midwest’s flooding misery Friday as thousands of people returned to damaged homes, many without electricity to run fans or pumps.

A sudden thunderstorm with 70 mph wind slammed into the Chicago area Thursday evening, tearing down huge trees and damaging buildings. In the suburbs, part of an industrial facility’s roof collapsed, injuring 40 people, and a tornado was reported as the storm moved into Michigan.

Early Friday, another band of thunderstorms was dumping more rain along a line from southern Iowa into Wisconsin.

Most of southern Iowa was under a flash flood watch through Friday evening as as much as 8 inches of rain fell, the National Weather Service said.

Apr¨s nous le deluge.

A very good article in the Washington Post lays out the problem we face.

“Global warming will intensify drought, and it will intensify floods,” explains Stephen Schneider, editor of the journal Climatic Change and a lead author for the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Why?

“As the air gets warmer, there will be more water in the atmosphere. That’s settled science…. You are going to intensify the hydrologic cycle. Where the atmosphere is configured to have high pressure and droughts, global warming will mean long, dry periods. Where the atmosphere is configured to be wet, you will get more rain, more gully washers.”

The droughts will be especially bad. How bad?

Richard Seager, a senior researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, looked at 19 computer models of the future under current global warming trends. He found remarkable consistency: Sometime before 2050, the models predicted, the Southwest will be gripped in a dry spell akin to the Great Dust Bowl drought that lasted through most of the 1930s.

Droughts and water shortages already been driving conflict around the globe:

Read more

Six Western states and parts of Canada join to cut greenhouse gases – San Francisco Chronicle. Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington along with Canadian provinces Manitoba and British Columbia “have set a goal to reduce the region’s greenhouse gas emissions about 25 percent by 2020.”

Priority changes on green policies – LA Times. “Reflecting a shift in priorities under the Democratic majority, Congress is moving to spend as much as $6.7 billion next fiscal year to combat global warming, an increase of nearly one-third from the current year.” Still, I agree with Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch: “Those spending measures are no substitute for better fuel-economy standards and tough caps on greenhouse gas emissions.”

Water Levels in 3 Great Lakes Dip Far Below Normal – New York Times. The reason for the dip is not perfectly understood, but it appears to be a combination of factors including climate change.

U.S. green project enters Canadian home market – canada.com. All about the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes program, an important marketplace innovation.

Heat Spells Trouble for France’s Nuclear Reactors - NPR (Audio). Nuclear power is supposed to fight global warming, but, ironically, “many French reactors have had trouble operating during hot spells.” This story explains why.