The Atlantic‘s Clive Crook has written one of the most embarrassing and willfully uninformed pieces published by the status quo media, “Climategate and the Big Green Lie.”  Coming after multiple exonerations of climatologist Michael Mann, it is libelous.  Amazingly, Mann tells me that Crook never interviewed him or contacted him at all before writing this piece.

How exactly does the senior editor for a major magazine trash the reputation of a man whose academic practices and scientific results have been exonerated probably more than any other U.S. climate scientist — without even talking to that scientist?  By basically making crap up.

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What wildly underfunded climate solution can achieve all of these goals simultaneously:

• Slow global warming by increasing the reflectivity of the Earth (geo-engineering)
• Reduce local temperatures in the hottest cities (adaptation)
• Reduce fossil CO2 emissions (mitigation)
• Save U.S. consumers and businesses billions of dollars in energy costs
• Reduce urban smog and hence cardio-pulmonary disease
• Create more than 100,000 jobs in two years?

The answer is a major effort to make roofs (and pavements) whiter and/or more reflective, which should be coupled with a major urban tree-planting effort.

This “urban heat island mitigation” (UHIM) may well be the single most cost-effective energy and climate strategy (see background here plus “White roofs are the trillion-dollar solution“).

Now Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced new initiatives to promote and install “cool roofs” on DOE and other federal buildings.  CAP’s Laurel Hunt has the story. 

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Google Strikes Wind-Power Deal

Google Inc. struck a 20-year deal to buy clean energy from a NextEra Energy Inc. wind farm, a move that places the Internet search giant in the wholesale energy market.

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Obama signs executive order creating new national ocean policy

The Obama administration released the final recommendations of an Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force Monday, and the president immediately turned around and signed it into an executive order.  Laura Cantral of the Meridian Institute and CAP’s Andrew Light have the story in this cross-post.

The recommendations call for the establishment of a new national policy to protect and restore our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes. Ocean conservation and industry groups have long identified a comprehensive national ocean policy as a priority. There is urgent need for more coordination between the multiple federal agencies with ocean management responsibilities and greater coherency between the numerous laws addressing ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes resources. The United States has now taken a major step forward in achieving that goal.

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By mid-century climate change will mean a high or extreme risk of water shortages in 14 states, according to a new study commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

One-third of U.S. counties will face at least some higher risks of water shortages, with 400 counties at extremely high risk, the report by consulting firm Tetra Tech concludes.  CAP’s Tom Kenworthy has the story.

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