Findings suggests that politicians aren't aiming nearly high enough to prevent our certain doom. Apparently it is more important to save their jobs then the planet. It appears to be a value judgment wether we want to survive or make money for a few rich white men. Washington Post article

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The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

Their findings, published in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide.

Lots of folks have decided to drive cars powered by biofuels, feeling good about the switch from fossil fuels and hoping the biofuel decision is an ethical and effective response to global warming, but the science is starting to accumulate indicating that biofuels are not an effective answer.

I know this may not be what a lot of people want to hear. And it's no doubt true that if you simply measure the gases at the tailpipe, it would appear that biofuels are cleaner than fossil fuels, but once you start measuring the complete environmental picture of biofuels, it turns out that biofuels are simply not green. I don't believe that ethanol, biodiesel and the other internal combustion options for loco-motion have any real merit.

The NYT carries a story today here that covers two papers recently published in the journal Science that includes the following:

Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel.

“When you take this into account, most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gasses substantially,” said Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University. “Previously there’s been an accounting error: land use change has been left out of prior analysis.”

If you want to read the articles themselves, not dumbed down through the NYT, you can go to the journal Science online here.

•What: A Community Forum on Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest

•Who: A panel of South Sound and state lawmakers, business leaders and scientific experts on global warming will talk with residents about environmental issues.

•Where: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. S.E., Olympia

•When: 7 to 10:30 p.m. today

•Admission: Free

Other events

•Today: The films "The Story of Stuff" and "Climate Change: Olympia's Call to Action" will be shown at noon and 4 p.m. in Building 26, Room 105, at South Puget Sound Community College, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia.

•Today: Climate-change workshops will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Evergreen State College, 2700 Evergreen Parkway N.W.

•Thursday: Information booths, demonstrations and food, noon to 2 p.m. at SPSCC's Student Union Building, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia. Speaker Paul Horton of Climate Solutions will discuss possible climate-change solutions.

•Thursday: Tamra Gilbertson and Kevin Smith, researchers with Carbon Trade Watch, will give a presentation about the effects of carbon trading and offsets in third-world countries and more prosperous nations from 3 to 5 p.m. in Lecture Hall 4 at Evergreen. For more information, call 360-867-6137 or e-mail chriset@evergreen.edu.

Source of Information

From AlterNet:

Last week in our nation's capital, the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) held a climate change conference focused on solutions to the problem of human-induced climate change. And in Paris the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is sharing the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, held a press conference to discuss to discuss "the importance of lifestyle choices" in combating global warming.

Notably, all food at the NCSE conference was vegan, and there were table-top brochures with quotes from the U.N. report on the meat industry, discussed more below. And the IPCC head, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri declared, as the AFP sums it up, "Don't eat meat, ride a bike, and be a frugal shopper."

When people are overwhelmed by the idea of changing a lifestyle, or even a single habit, defensiveness and even denial can be the result. How would you help a friend learn to change the habits that are so ingrained in our culture...meat consumption, driving personal vehicles, consumerism...in a way that would seem less overwhelming and be less likely to produce a defensive response?

My take:

America's newest security threat: Global Warming

Retired four-star General Zinni calls global warming a serious security threat

Thursday December 27th, 2007

Anthony Charles Zinni (born September 17, 1943) is a retired four-star general in the United States Marine Corps and a former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). In 2002, he was selected to be a special envoy for the United States to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He has been a public critic of the Bush administration and did not support the decision to go to war in Iraq. While serving as special envoy, Zinni was also an instructor in the Department of International Studies at the Virginia Military Institute. Presently, he is an instructor in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary, a public speaker, and an author of two best-selling books on his military career and foreign affairs, most recently Battle for Peace. He also is involved in the corporate world, joining M.I.C. Industries as its president for International Operations in 2005. General Zinni also serves on the advisory boards of eight different companies, including the security testing firm, Mu Security, based in Sunnyvale, California. He will begin teaching at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.