Maldives Builds Barriers to Global Warming – NPR Report. The Republic of Maldives, a nation of small islands, is among the most threatened by sea level rise in the coming century. Having tried for decades to address the coming doom, their president has found a solution aimed at adapting to sea level rise, spreading out the nation’s population, and building sturdier cities in general.

Antarctica on alert for alien invaders – Reuters. Scientists in Antarctica fear that global warming and travel to the island could cause a mass introduction of species new to Antarctica – like rats.

Let’s hope talk on climate change is not just hot air – The Times (UK). From the author of The Rough Guide to Climate Change, in anticipation of Bush’s second meaningless climate PR stunt major emitter’s meeting – to be held in Hawaii (!) later this week:

Talk of global warming will fill the balmy air of Hawaii this week. President Bush will host representatives of 15 of the world’s biggest economies that lead the global pack on greenhouse emissions to discuss setting goals that can take over where the Kyoto Protocol leaves off in 2012.

However, Earth’s atmosphere isn’t exactly waiting in the wings. Change is already occuring, due to gases emitted over the past hundred years. A century is a long time — but what about what happens in the next five minutes:

– Burning oil, petrol and coal will throw about 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the air.

– Human-produced greenhouse gases will trap enough sunlight to power a 40-watt lightbulb for every 40 square metres on Earth.

– Two people will die from illnesses related to global warming.

The flip side of these ominous numbers is that personal and societal actions make a concrete difference here and now, not just in a hazy climatic future. Let’s say you replace an incandescent lightbulb with a compact fluorescent or, for your holiday, opt for a train to Nice instead of a flight to Cyprus.

Imagine a half-tonne of refuse strewn across a tropical ocean for a hundred years. Then imagine having it within your power to keep it from getting there. In the ocean of air in which we live and breathe, we have that power.

If you must buy carbon offsets, caveat emptor — in particular, don’t buy them from the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). That is the point of a terrific front-page article in today’s Washington Post “Value of U.S. House’s Carbon Offsets Is Murky, Some Question Effectiveness of $89,000 Purchase to Balance Out Greenhouse Gas Emissions.”

Yes, it is nice to be quoted above the fold in any major newspaper — the quote in the headline is from me — but the reason I think the article is important is that the reporter took the time to track down the offset projects the taxpayer money went to. The results are not encouraging. I am not a fan of offsets (see my many posts dissing “Offsets” under that category on this blog’s side bar) — and certainly wasn’t a fan of the House buying offsets from the CCX in the first place.

But I was surprised by the overall lameness of the specific projects and utterly shocked to read the words of CCX CEO Richard Sandor (a man I have a fair amount of respect for):

It basically rewards people for having done things that had environmental good in the past and incentivizes people to do things that have environmental good in the future.

Shame on him for having this policy, and double shame if he actually believes it is the right thing. Offset money is supposed to cause carbon emissions reductions that would not otherwise have happened without that money (the so-called additionality criteria), in order to offset our own emissions (which we have first worked hard to reduce). We are most certainly not expecting our money go to rewarding people for having done things that had environmental benefit in the past. Geez — I’ve done a whole bunch of things that had environmental benefit in the past — see list here — does that mean I’m entitled to some of Sandor’s CCX money? Absurd!

An old friend of mind, consultant Mark Trexler, put it well in the article when he said,

If you don’t have additionality, you know what you’re getting. You’re getting nothing.

Kudos to uber-capitalist Sandor. He has proven you can get nothing for something.

Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, regularly has me on his Earthbeat radio show, so I’m returning the favor with this great letter to the editor he had in the Washington Post yeterday:

Fact: Virginia gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from “green” sources such as the wind or the sun. Fact: Virginia ranks 38th among U.S. states in energy efficiency. Fact: Climate change is real, and fossil fuel substitutes are needed, according to President Bush’s State of the Union address last year. So how would Dominion Virginia Power respond to these facts?

• Savagely blow up entire mountains in southwest Virginia.
• Feed the resulting exposed coal to a proposed power plant that is unnecessary and would cost ratepayers at least $1.8 billion.
• Create lots more greenhouse gases in the process.
• Doom the good people of southwest Virginia to living with a brutal extraction industry that has no future.

Whew! Talk about getting everything wrong.

And yet Gov. Tim Kaine supports the plan:

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