Then I have the website for you: www.catalogchoice.org.

This is a free, on-line service that allows people to easily “opt out” of receiving unwanted catalogs. It is being operated by the Catalog Choice Task Force, which includes the Ecology Center, NRDC, and the National Wildlife Federation.

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers. The climate impacts alone are staggering:

• 53 million trees used
• 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equal to the annual emissions of two million cars

Do we really need so many catalogs when we’ve got the internet at our fingertips?

The Environmental Law & Policy Center, the Midwest’s leading environmental law and advocacy organization, has unveiled its new and improved global warming solutions web site: www.globalwarmingsolutions.org.

The updated site is a one-stop shop for Midwest regional global warming solutions with:

• A comprehensive list of global warming events throughout the Midwest;
• Interactive forums and regional-based policy solutions; and
• Features GWS.TV with video segments of politicians, scientists and policy experts.

Kudos to ELPC for providing this service.

Solar’s Day In The Sun – Businessweek. Good article on the other solar power, one Climate Progress is a big fan of. “It seems there is a pathway to very low-cost concentrating solar power,” says Andrew Kinross at Navigant Consulting Inc. “This opportunity is finally taking hold.” Let’s hope so!

Britain Ends Consultation on New Nuclear Power – Reuters. “The British government’s legally forced public consultation on whether it should give the green light to a new fleet of nuclear power stations to fight global warming ends on Wednesday with the process deep in controversy. By coincidence, Wednesday is also the 50th anniversary of Britain’s worst nuclear accident when the reactor core at the Windscale plant in north western England caught fire sending a plume of radioactive material across the country.” Irony can be so ironic.

Global warming warnings anything but new – Mercury (Australia). A good piece on the coal industry and government that could apply as in the U.S. as much as in Australia: “Unfortunately, the Australian coal industry story of denial, delay and diversion is being repeated everywhere we look. ”

The China syndrome – San Francisco Chronicle. A good overview of the China-global warming problem, with some proposed solutions.

Who’d have thunk that to follow up our Labor Day Special on wardrobe changes, we could do a Columbus Day Special on wardrobe, too?

For starters, the story of disappearing fall fashions and seasonal wardrobes is having a second go through the papers. See the weekend editions of the UK’s Independent and the Telegraph.

But I also must admit my frustration with the holiday weekend’s weather – around 90 degrees F in D.C.! I would much rather be fighting a crisp breeze with a comfortable hoodie than sporting sweat as my weekend attire in October.

Now I know it’s unwise to jump to climate conclusions based on the weather. Then I watched the evening news. The weatherman said we just experienced was the warmest October 8th since 1931, and my immediate thought (being from Kansas) was that October hasn’t seen these extreme conditions since the Dust Bowl era. And it’s true that a majority of the Southeast is experiencing an exceptional drought, and the entire West is under a severe drought (see the U.S Drought Monitor.)

Most of us don’t pay much attention to things that are highly sensitive to the climate – we need to know what clothes to layer, and don’t much mind what sort of shape agricultural crops or water resources are in (so long as food makes it to our table at an affordable price). It’s difficult to see the warning signs of disaster, but they’re increasingly present and the news media – what should be our best access to this sort of perspective – is missing the story.

Several chances arose on Monday to draw the connection: on the one hand, global warming, and on the other, a series of extreme trends (drought, heat waves) that fit climate models of global warming. Yet is was missed on all accounts, from D.C.’s local weatherman to NBC’s Nightly News broadcast on the disastrous and fatal Chicago marathon and October beach parties in New York:

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