The good news is my relatives’ home in Rancho Santa Fe survived — though houses as close as two miles away did not. They were delayed in returning home, however, as their doctor said the air remained unhealthy to breathe.

Lots of articles about the climate-wildfire connection have now been written:

• “Fire on the Mountain: California Feels the Heat of Global Warming,” by the Center for American Progress’s Daniel J. Weiss
• “Global Warming didn’t light California’s Fires, but did fan the flames …“ by Adam Siegel
• “Did We Do That?” by Thomas Friedman.
• Heck even the Nobe-Prize winning IPCC makes the link — or rather made it earlier this year:

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TO: William Anderson, assistant Air Force secretary

FROM: Climate Progress, blog

SUBJECT: Your nonsensical claims in a recent Reuters piece, “US Air Force Eyes Alternative Fuel, Slashing CO2.”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Liquid coal cannot be part of a plan to “zero out” the Air Force’s carbon output — contrary to your repeated claims.

BACKGROUND: The following press release masquerading as a genuine news story appeared this week:

The world’s most powerful air force is seeking to wean itself from foreign oil and nearly zero out its carbon dioxide output as part of a sweeping alternative energy drive, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday.

Well, that certainly would be big news, if it were actually true. The press release story continues:

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US battles epic drought, little relief in sight - Agence France-Presse

• “Los Angeles recorded just 8.15 centimeters (3.21 inches) of rain in the year to June 30, making it the driest year on record since 1877. The city draws half its water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, which have provided only around 20 percent of normal levels.”
• “The worst hit is the southeastern state of Georgia, that is largely under level four, or “extreme” drought. Officials say this is the worst drought the state has experienced since 1892, if not in history.”
• Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue: “Drought is a natural disaster, and we are experiencing the single worst drought on Georgia’s history. On top of that, we are mired in a man-made disaster of federal bureaucracy.” Yet neither he nor the reporter acknowledge even the possibility that climate change is making these kind of droughts more likely and more intense.

MPs call for ‘super department’ on climate change – The Independent. “The MPs called for the appointment of a cross-departmental Climate Change Minister who would regularly attend Cabinet meetings to drive Government policy on the issue…. The committee also backed the establishment of a new Whitehall body — the Climate Change and Energy secretariat, based in the Cabinet Office — to co-ordinate the fight against global warming.”

Power Revolution - U.S. News and World Report. A long article with shorter summaries of our current and future energy menu, including technologies only now starting to get media attention like concentrated solar and geothermal.

Carbon partnership hopes to go global – Reuters. “A coalition of European countries, U.S. states, Canadian provinces and New Zealand signed a partnership on Monday to slow global warming through an international carbon trading market.”

A good radio show this week on climate activism ending with a “roundtable” between me and Mike Tidwell about climate and the media:

On this edition of Earthbeat, co-host Mike Tidwell focuses on people who are jumping into action on global warming. First, an update on the No War No Warming movement. Ted Glick, the coordinator of the US Climate Emergency Council, and Nadine Bloch, the organizing director of Oil Change International, give us a front-line report from a recent action on Capitol Hill.

Then we jump forward to Power Shift. Thousands of college and high school students are converging on a university near Capitol Hill. The goal is to train a whole new generation of environmental leaders. Brianna Cayo Cotter and Shadia Wood of Energy Action come by the Earthbeat studios at WPFW for an update on the action.

Finally, Joe Romm stops by to discuss the connection between wildfires, droughts, and White House censorship on climate change. Joe is the author of the book Hell and High Water and a blogger for the website Climate Progress.

Download this edition of Earthbeat.

China’s rapacious coal plant building is neither moral nor sustainable, as discussed in Part I. Yet many supply-side alternatives, like nuclear and hydro, are problemmatic for the country.

What should China do to satisfy its insatiable thirst for energy? Go back to their amazing energy efficiency policies of the 1980s and early 1990s.

China’s energy history can be divided into several phases, as we learn from Dr. Mark Levine, co-founder of the Beijing Energy Efficiency Center (see terrific video here).

The first phase (1949-1980) was a “Soviet Style” energy policy during which there were subsidized energy prices, no concern for the environment, and an energy use that rose faster than economic growth (GDP).

The second phase (1981 to 1999) was “California on steroids,” when the country embraced an aggressive push on energy management and energy efficiency, surpassing the efficiency efforts California achieved since the mid-1970s. This came about as a result of Deng Xiaoping heeding the advice of a group of leading academic experts who suggested a new approach to energy. Chinese strategies included:

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