James Hansen's 'weather wars' 14 February 06

From the Independent, via ClimateArk:

GLOBAL WARMING: PASSING THE ‘TIPPING POINT’ Critical rise in world temperatures is now unavoidable

Independent, 2/11/06, Michael McCarthy

A crucial global warming “tipping point” for the Earth, highlighted only last week by the British Government, has already been passed, with devastating consequences…

The implication is that some of global warming’s worst predicted effects, from destruction of ecosystems to increased hunger and water shortages for billions of people, cannot now be avoided, whatever we do…

The danger point we are now firmly on course for is a rise in global mean temperatures to 2 degrees above the level before the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century…

By that point it is likely that the Greenland ice sheet will already have begun irreversible melting, threatening the world with a sea-level rise of several metres. Agricultural yields will have started to fall, not only in Africa but also in Europe, the US and Russia, putting up to 200 million more people at risk from hunger, and up to 2.8 billion additional people at risk of water shortages for both drinking and irrigation…

“The passing of this threshold [400 ppm CO2 equivalent; a recent calculation puts it at 425 ppm in 2004] is of the most enormous significance,” said Tom Burke, a former government adviser on the green issues, now visiting professor at Imperial College London. “It means we have actually entered a new era – the era of dangerous climate change. We have passed the point where we can be confident of staying below the 2 degree rise set as the threshold for danger. What this tells us is that we have already reached the point where our children can no longer count on a safe climate.”

The scientist who chaired the Exeter conference, Dennis Tirpak, head of the climate change unit of the OECD in Paris, was even more direct. He said: “This means we will hit 2 degrees [as a global mean temperature rise].”

Professor Burke added: “We have very little time to act now. Governments must stop talking and start spending. We already have the technology to allow us to meet our growing need for energy while keeping a stable climate. We must deploy it now. Doing so will cost less than the Iraq war so we know we can afford it.”...

Originally posted at: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article344690.ece

It’s not just GW science he hates; it’s energy efficiency, as well. Whatever happened to Ben Franklin’s spirit of “a penny saved is a penny earned”? See this (via ClimateArk):

PLUG PULLED ON RENEWABLE ENERGY GURUS Denver Post, 2/14/06, Diane Carman

The day Carol Tombari got fired plays in her head like a scene from a cheesy espionage thriller.

She arrived at work and was told to appear at a mandatory meeting in 20 minutes. It was there that she learned she was being laid off and that she had five hours to pack and vacate the premises.

When she returned to her desk, her computer had been disabled, her phone service cut.

She had to cancel an appearance the next day at a regional mayors’ caucus. Her presentation on the importance of energy efficiency to local governments was locked in her computer.

She was among the disappeared from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, where 31 workers were dismissed seven days after President Bush read the words “addicted to oil” off the teleprompter and announced yet another “Advanced Energy Initiative.”

“It was a week to the day after the State of the Union,” Tombari said. The single mother of three with a son in college was given one month’s severance pay.

“I can understand budget cuts. I can understand realigning the mission at NREL. But being treated like a corporate saboteur, that was rough,” said Tombari, who has worked in energy policy for more than 25 years.

John Thornton, an engineer and 28-year veteran at NREL, is another casualty of the post-State of the Union sweep. He was given until March 31 to get out.

“You never know with these budgets,” said Thornton, who survived an NREL purge during the Reagan administration.

Still, the political shenanigans have a crippling impact on research. Projects are abandoned, careers are interrupted, lives are thrown into turmoil.

The scientists at NREL “have no peer,” U.S. Department of Energy spokesman Craig Stevens crowed last week.

They also have no job security.

Tombari’s job was to work with state and local governments to incorporate new technologies into public policies. Before she came to NREL in 1993, she directed the Texas Energy Office for 10 years.

“I loved my job,” she said. “Ideally, if I had the money, I would do what I was doing at NREL for free. Those of us who worked at NREL had a real passion for the technology.”

It’s technology so marginalized few Americans even realize it exists.

“Our current institutions and processes are stacked against emerging energy technologies,” Tombari said.

Just look at the decades-old techniques available for saving energy in lighting, heating and manufacturing. If they were adopted, Tombari said, they would be “virtual power plants,” creating enormous volumes of energy by reclaiming what is wasted.

Or just look at the collapse of the U.S. auto industry, while Toyota devours market share with its hot hybrids.

Ironically, Tombari said, “A lot of the hybrid technology was developed right here at NREL” – and ignored.

Detroit automakers knew how to build fuel-efficient cars; they simply chose not to. As a result, they ceded the technology – and the market – to the Japanese.

“It’s really astounding that the public knows as little as it does about the work that goes on at NREL,” said Tombari. “I mean, the research is great, but unless it gets into the marketplace, it’s a waste.”

Despite our lack of appreciation for NREL, many of its innovations will continue to find their way into the international marketplace. With high oil and gas prices, there’s too much money to be made in alternative energy technologies to stop them. “The industry is exploding internationally,” said Thornton.

While our commitment to developing alternative energy sources in the U.S. too often is just empty rhetoric – “greenwashing,” Tombari calls it – around the world it’s the Holy Grail.

“There’s a tremendous market out there,” said Thornton, who hopes to be able to work with his friends at NREL again someday. In the meantime, though, he said not to worry. The former NREL scientists will land on their feet.

It’s the Advanced Energy Initiative that could be in trouble.

Originally posted at: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3506521

ML.org’s exclusive article mentions George C. Deutsch, the young political appointee to NASA’s PR department, who resigned after it was revealed that he falsely represented himself as having a degree.

The following blog claims that, ironically enough, Deutsch did editorialize against (someone else’s) lack of integrity:

http://www.wasuvi.com/archives/2006/02/mr_pot_mr_kettl.html

“Deutsch did attend the Texas university and did some writing for the Battalion, the student paper. In an opinion piece in 2003 when New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was unmasked as a fabricator, Deutsch wrote: “Blair’s decisions and actions lacked ethics and integrity. As a reporter, he cared only about himself and furthering his career at the expense of the truth.” “

momochan

I think I’ve mentioned this before a long way below but to repeat … McCarthy relayed a conversation with Paul Brown, a retired Guardian environmental correspondent, on their return from the big Hadley Centre/Met Office sustainability conference in early 2005. McCarthy reported their conversation thus ‘“The earth is finished.” Paul said: “It is, yes.” We both shook our heads …. ’ The Tablet 12/2/05 – I have the pdf full article. For more from McCarthy on GW and Catholicism see http://www.thetablet.co.uk/cgi-bin/archive_db.cgi/tablet-00855

McCarthy wrote at length on Lovelock’s latest – my views are below. McCarthy wrote the pieces in last Saturday’s Indy. Maybe I’m being unfair in singling him out but I’m beginning to wonder if he’s a catastrophist, somehow drawn to apocalyptic scenarios.

A useful rejoinder to this approach which also comments on the accuracy of the reporting is here in a letter, “Don’t despair: the planet can be saved”, from Tony Cooper in yesterday’s Indy http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article345294.ece There are a couple of other letters worth reading as well, one of which, I think, is inspired by a Transport 2000 report which draws, in part, on Chris Rose’s work and is well worth reading. Seek out “Green-Engage report – Painting the Town Green – argues for new approach to turn the public ‘green’” here http://www.transport2000.org.uk/ for more.

I’m going to treat the Indy’s front page GW/CC stories with increasing circumspection from now on.

Douglas Coker