On climate: politics, media and pragmatism
Here's a roundup of news on the climate front, here and abroad.
As the presidential campaign spotlight shifts to Florida, Katharine Mieszkowski notes in Salon that MSNC's Tim Russert asked Rudy Guiliani during a televised debate last week to explain what he'd do to combat the threat of global warming. That evidently brings to six the number of climate-related questions the major TV network interviewers have asked of the candidates, out of some 2,975 queries in all. This despite public opinion polls suggesting voters are concerned about climate change, and efforts by nearly all the candidates to stake out positions on it. For those who'd like to see more coverage of how the presidential wannabes would address this issue, Russert's question was a step up - until a week or two ago, the TV political brain trust had only asked four climate questions, advocates say - versus three about UFOs.
If you want to read or listen to your news instead of watch it, there's more to like:
American Public Media's Marketplace started airing a new climate series today called "Plan B: Adapting to a Warmer World." Produced in conjunction with the Center for Investigative Reporting, Marketplace takes a look at what engineers, scientists and governments are working on to cope with the consequences should efforts to stave off climate change fail. The first two reports, by Nate Dimo and Sam Eaton, are about desalination in Australia and about a scientist's idea for making something positive out of melting icecaps. Something to tune in to as you drive to work (in a hybrid, with three passengers, we trust).
Meanwhile, NPR continues its long-running "Climate Connections" series with a report by Jon Hamilton today on how the Maldives islands are building up their islands with sand dredged from the Indian Ocean bottom to stave off being flooded out by rising sea levels. As you can see from the photo above, these idyllic-looking spots are just a few feet above the waves now. Of course, this may give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ideas here. Climate Connections is produced in conjunction with National Geographic. To see (and hear) more from the series, go here.
Last, an interesting item from the dead-tree media: David Fahrenthold reports in The Washington Post today that the U.S. House of Representatives paid $89,000 for carbon offsets to cancel out the greenhouse gas emissions from House buildings (and their debates?). But a lot of the taxpayers' cash apparently went to farmers in North Dakota who already were taking steps to keep carbon in the soil, and to an Iowa power plant that had already canceled its experiment in burning alternative fuels before the offsets were purchased. It's another example of what The Sun's own Tom Pelton reported some time back about the lack of accountability in the booming market for buying so-called carbon credits or offsets. Caveat emptor.
Looking for a chance to learn more about "green building?" How it can help lower energy bills while also cooling global warming?
