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A handful of imaginary species are protected by real laws

Dave Shealy has spent chunks of his life trudging through the muck of the Everglades’ Big Cypress Swamp in search of a monster — a hairy, 450-pound one that can […]

Americans and Climate Change: From science to values II

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Below the fold is the second half of the report's second chapter, "From Science to Values." It addresses how politicians and "authentic messengers" can direct values discussions. The latter, most interesting part lists some reasons to be cautious about transitioning to values talk. I must admit to sharing some of these concerns.

Yukon Count on Me

Group aims to create wildlife corridor from Yellowstone to Yukon Recognizing that halting development is just not feasible (these are humans we’re talking about), a group called Y2Y wants to […]

The Aye Yi Yi of the Storm

NOAA predicts active hurricane season this year This year’s hurricane season, which starts June 1, will produce up to 10 hurricanes in the North Atlantic, up to six of which […]

Tierney on Gore

I'm genuinely puzzled by John Tierney's column ($) on Gore and An Inconvenient Truth.

He doesn't deny that global warming is real, or that it's a significant challenge. His problem with Gore seems to be that Gore recognized the danger too soon, before "non-evil economists" were convinced. According to Tierney, Gore's downright crazy to ascribe the lack of social consensus on climate change in part to "evil oil companies and Republicans." You see, up 'til now it's just been good-natured, good-faith debate. Some people -- non-evil people! -- well, they just weren't convinced.

Mm-hm.

The second ding on Gore is that he "avoids any call to action that would cause immediate discomfort, either to filmgoers or to voters in the 2008 primaries." Tierney's in a snit that Gore didn't specifically advocate Tierney's pet solutions: a gas tax and nuclear power.

But Gore spent only about the last ten minutes of the movie on solutions. (Thus the much-discussed quote.) He didn't do anything but gesture to the Socolow-Pacala paper on stabilization wedges. There were no specific policy recommendations, comfortable or uncomfortable.

What doesn't occur to Tierney is that Gore might not have needed to spend so much time on basic climate science if boneheads like Tierney hadn't taken so long to board the clue train. It appears one can never convince Americans too much.

Anyway.

Gore's been right about climate change, for a long time. Tierney's been wrong about it, until just recently. Rather than snickering about Gore's "likeability," perhaps Tierney should be aspiring to Gore's veracity. Oh, and moral courage.

2 sexy 4 this blog

Prince was named "world's sexiest vegetarian" by PETA voters.

I have mixed thoughts about PETA, but not about Prince. Pass me another Purple Rain.

Mallaby on Gore

The Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby -- a member in good standing of the more-centrist-than-thou Beltway club -- thinks the Bush administration is making Al Gore look good:

Six years ago, Bush narrowly defeated Gore, apparently because voters thought he'd be a nicer guy to have a beer with. But after years of governmental bungling, of willful indifference to truth, the national mood seems to be changing. Voters have seen that nice guys can screw up. And technocrats with diagrams and charts have never seemed so interesting.

Elite opinion, which was so devastating to Gore's 2000 campaign, seems squarely behind him this time around.

Update [2006-5-22 15:28:21 by David Roberts]: Via Kevin Drum, Margaret Carlson makes a similar point.

Big greenish taxi

As gas prices have risen, hybrids have become a substantially better buy than they once were. Still, it depends on how much you drive: the more miles you log, the more money a hybrid can save you.

So I'm heartened (though far from shocked) to see that cab companies are starting to realize this. Cabbies drive a lot. That's their job, after all. And higher gas prices mean that they're starting to run up enormous fuel bills, which means that switching to hybrids offers an immediate benefit to a cabbie's bottom line.

Orwell would be proud

Rep. Richard Pombo today introduced his latest bill to open ANWR to energy exploration called ... wait for it ... the "American-Made Energy and Good Jobs Act."

Unbelievable

From Congressional Quarterly (subscription):

House Republican leaders this week plan to push at least one energy policy hot button during floor action before departing for a week-long Memorial Day recess: authorization to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

What's it going to take? A stake through the heart? A silver bullet? Perhaps environmentalists should consult this guide.