MacCready is best known for designing the Gossamer Condor, which “made the first sustained, controlled flight powered solely by a human.” But electric vehicle enthusiasts know him for his work on the GM EV1. You won’t see this in most obits, but if you want to know the scoop on his EV work, here is a good remembrance.

He was a great man, and I was fortunate to meet him once — he actually was in the audience for a talk I gave dissing hydrogen cars and praising plug-in hybrids. I was honored that he stayed for the talk and then was kind enough to say he agreed with my analysis. He will be missed.

Now you can read in full the IPPC’s report from Working Group II on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Find it here.

The report’s release coincides with eerie hints of our future in resource management. The water level of the Great Lakes — the largest freshwater reservoir in the world — has been unusually low recently. This is not entirely due to climate change, but is very likely exacerbated by it.

If you go to page 628 of the full report (page 12 of the North American chapter), you’ll be treated to a terrific chart on the interconnected impacts of increasingly low water levels in the Great Lakes (reprinted below). Impacts include decreased potential for hydropower, loss of habitat and species, difficult navigation, and issues with water quality and water access.

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G. Gordon Liddy’s daughter repeated a standard denyer line in our debate: Humans are very adaptable — we’ve adapted to climate changes in the past and will do so in the future.

I think Hurricane Katrina gives the lie to that myth. No, I’m not saying humans are not adaptable. Nor am I saying global warming caused Hurricane Katrina, although warming probably did make it a more intense. But on the two-year anniversary of Katrina — and the one year anniversary of Climate Progress’s initial launch — I’m saying Katrina showed the limitations of adaptation as a response to climate change, for several reasons.

First, the citizens of New Orleans “adapted” to Hurricane Katrina, but I’m certain that every last one of them wishes we had prevented the disaster with stronger levees. The multiple catastrophes — extreme drought, extreme flooding, extreme weather, extreme temperatures — that global warming will bring can be suffered through, but I wouldn’t call it adaptation.

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