But in a callous, error-riddled post, WattsUpWithThat cheers on the preventable calamity.

“Annual growth in atmospheric CO2. Data from Mauna Loa.”

Finally, the anti-science crowd at WattsUpWithThat and I finally agree on something:  “The rate of atmospheric CO2 growth has been increasing,” as WUWT writes in a post Thursday accompanying the above graph.   But in a bizarre, error-riddled, and callous piece even by WUWT standards, they insist that this is a good thing.

Indeed, these two sentences by Willis Eschenbach that Anthony “shout them down” Watts posted may be the single most uninformed assertion ever made on WattsUpWithThat [put on your head vises]:

Read more

The state of Texas will be adding four congressional districts due to significant population growth. My colleague Matt Yglesias writes that it’s “fascinating to learn from the Census Bureau that even amidst 20 percent population growth, huge swathes of the state are actually losing people. The result is a state becoming radically less rural as remote areas decline in population while central cities and (especially) suburbs boom at an incredible rate”:

One of the major reasons that there’s such a radical population shift is that central Texas is changing from arid grassland to uninhabitable desert, in part due to greenhouse pollution from the fossil fuels once buried under the ground. Other unsustainable practices, such as overpumping of groundwater, unregulated sprawl, and poor conservation practices are accelerating the desertification. The region has been in a drought since 1995-1996, with brief respites in 2007 and 2010 from catastrophic, flooding rains:

1996: “In Texas, losses to the agricultural industry exceeded $2.1 billion; statewide losses exceeded $5 billion.”

1998: “Without substantial rains, this year’s drought may be a worse disaster for Texas agriculture than the severe drought of 1996.”

2002: “Texas ranchers feel drought sting.”

2003: “Central Texas is in the midst of a seven-year drought.”

2005: “It’s been dry, it is dry, and it will likely stay dry through the winter, according to the state’s climatologist Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon based at Texas A&M University’s College of Geosciences.”

2006: “Texas’ drought losses have reached an estimated $4.1 billion, eclipsing the $2.1 billion mark set in 1998, according to Texas Cooperative Extension economists.”

2008: “Lack of rain and scorching temperatures hit Texas’ agricultural crops and beef operations hard late spring and summer, leading to an estimated $1.4 billion in drought losses, Texas AgriLife Extension Service economists reported.”

2009: “The most severe drought this part of Texas has ever seen means grazing pastures have dried up. Throughout central Texas, lake levels have fallen as much as 30 feet below normal, fields are cracking, and in some places half the cotton, corn and sorghum crops have withered away. Texas officials estimate losses are already at $3.6 billion and rising. . . . Over the past two months, Austin has sweltered through 19 days above 100 degrees. And rainfall is 20 inches below normal. ”

2011: “Deteriorating conditions in Texas and Oklahoma led to increased drought severity this week. In addition to the widespread wildfires in the region, impacts from agricultural areas are starting to be reported in counties along the Red River that illustrate the extreme nature of drought.”

This is just a taste of Texas’ future. “Triple-digit temperatures will be the norm in Texas within a few decades, and 115-degree heat won’t be surprising,” according to the state climatologist.

Battle-proof Wind Farms Survive Japan’s Trial by Fire

Despite assertions by its detractors that wind energy would not survive an earthquake or tsunami the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and helping to keep the lights on during the Fuksuhima crisis.

Read more

Help Alex Steffen create a short guide to carbon-neutral cities

The climate crisis demands that we start rebuilding our cities to become carbon neutral. But what does carbon neutrality mean? What does it look like? How do we measure it? My first goal here is to explain carbon neutrality in a short, amusing book that can be read in an afternoon; my second goal is to try an experiment in community-funded solutions-based journalism.

It’s time to demystify bold climate action, fast. By being the first to show support, you’ll help make this book a reality by Earth Day this April. (You’ll also get cool stuff.)

Guest blogger Alex Steffen wants you to help him create a book on climate solutions for cities (click here to help kick-start this effort).  Steffen co-founded and lead the nonprofit Worldchanging from 2003-2010; he also edited the two Worldchanging books.

THE PROJECT:

Read more

John Hinderaker, who works for a firm employed by Koch Industries, argues that efforts to regulate the greenhouse pollution of the petrochemical giant are wrong because “carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.” “Climate change is not caused by pollution; history proves that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not control worldwide temperatures,” Hinderaker wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, it is a natural substance that is essential to life on earth.” On Thursday, Koch Industries promoted Hinderaker’s radical denial of basic climate science on its Twitter feed and Facebook page:

“Let me address the argument that carbon dioxide is benign because we exhale it,” Rep. Jay Inslee explained this week when Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) parroted the same line as Hinderaker about the greenhouse gas. “That’s about as good an argument as saying a tsunami isn’t dangerous because we drink water.”

Scientists have been warning about greenhouse pollution from the burning of fossil fuels since the 19th century. In 2010, NASA scientists put the final nail in the coffin of Hinderaker’s zombie myth, with the Science paper “Atmospheric CO2: Principal Control Knob Governing Earth’s Temperature,” which explained “carbon dioxide is the single most important climate-relevant greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere.”

Unfortunately, neither Hinderaker, Koch Industries, nor their political allies are interested in factual evidence. All they seem to care about are the profits and power their pollution brings.

Investing in green jobs will immediately address two of our country’s most important challenges: lowering unemployment while improving our energy system. For those reasons alone, these investments would be worthwhile. But they will also significantly improve our economy in the long term, making it more productive and efficient.

Monday deadline to apply for course run by Media Matters

Media Matters will host its next media training event for environmental experts May 4-7th in Washington, DC. The deadline for applications is Monday March 21st. You can get more details and the apply online here.

Here’s the short version:

Read more