someone (the UN's IPCC, a conference of the five biggest CO2 producers?) has to set priorities. Unless this overwhelming problem is broken up and priorities of change are agreed on, a mish mash of meaures costing billions could occur. The result could be economic disaster paralleled by ecological disaster. Where do we get the most immediate impact that actually delays the most destructive effects of climate change?

The article mentions hurricanes for example, yet meteorologists do not concur that recent storms are the direct result of man-caused changes. Resources to adjust to climate change are not infinite. Thus what damages have been or are caused that are the most urgent need to be identified, and solutions universally adopted. Europe and China have been slow to implement kyoto, and the US has done nothing. On the theory that something is better than nothing, the successor to Kyoto, which I understand is under negotiation now, needs to be a)approved by the US and major carbon producers and b) dictate specific steps which are consensus and which address the problems deemed to be "out of control" without drastic measures. State action is better than nothing, but is just symbolic and futile if major nations don't adopt across the board measures that parallel the nationally caused, uncontrolled carbon production of the 20th & 21 centuries.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Global warming is Nature's answer to hyper-capitalism's corporate rape of the planet. Gaia is putting the breaks on this unstainable party.

This is a great opportunity. Not to save the consumption-production economoy with technological fixes, but to change both our economic and social order. A chance to conceive an economic/political/social system which works better for the planet and for people.

Nature is giving us no choice. Change for the better, or ...?
Let's not blow it.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We need to get a lot wiser and a lot more active if we are going to solve this global warming problem. First step: stop making heavy dinosaur cars and trucks.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Only two kinds of people dispute that global warming is happening. fringe right wing commentators( pace the editorial page and op-ed writers of neocon Wall Street Journal) using the same specious reason that cigarette companies used to deny that their product caused cancer and loonies such as Rush Limbaugh!
I plan to buy a Suzuki Grand Vitara( an SUV but definitely mote energy efficient than say a HUMMER)!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"Changing the course of global warming could take a major upheaval to affect public policy -- a Pearl Harbor-type event in the environment."

Gee, ya think? Because the fact that 41 square miles of the Ayles Ice Shelf broke free a little over a year ago and now roams the high seas in search of adventure and booty was apparently not important enough to warrant more media attention than a blurb on page 12 - right under the story "Man Stubs Toe" in the Buttfuck America Times.

That this story broke only recently should serve as notice of just how concerned most people really are. I guess we won't be taking this seriously until that "Pearl Harbor-type event" is a Carnival Cruise Liner hitting and iceberg and actually sinking . . . in Pearl Harbor. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming: "The Brangelina Britney Hour".

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The US corporate media would go into full spin mode, claiming that it was all due to "natural variability" in order to protect the interests of the fossil fuel tycoons who own the media as well. That's what happened with Katrina anyway - but the fact is that warmer oceans will lead to more intense hurricanes.

How about this: getting the media to tell the truth about fossil fuel industry propaganda put out by the American Petroleum Institute, which is currently using Edelman PR to coordinate the PR blitz? All the disasters in the world won't matter if the media keeps covering up the actual causes.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

but I would think it would be easier to tie the climate change we now egnore and or cannot detect to the thing most people do three times a day...eat.
Having lived in Northern Wi until just recently, I saw the changes most people miss, tree species dieing off and moving north, bird species arriving never seen so far north, and food potential diminishing that use to walk across my fields.
Here in Western ohio I am surrounded by food and little else.
But food knowone can eat unless massive amounts of energy turn it into corn syrup, pork chops, chicken or hamburger.
None of the fields one drives by in most of the country is edible by the species that grow it.
And now with our warming planet, those crops are in danger as well and coupled with the fact it is all grown heavily dependant on oil in all aspects from seed to plate, its sustainabilty has long passed.
Given we had three (at least) massive outbreaks from food bourne pathogens related to using noncomposted manure from large feed lots and dairy operations that use the food in the fields we cannot eat ourselves, "because" the cost of oil based fertilizers is too high and the feed lots are running out of places to put the manure created from feeding a high percentage of grain diets from fields that are subsidiesed and no longer sustainable...just what Pearl harbor are we needing other than that!!
It is a domino of Pearl harbors but known one is looking at the the long view of the situation.
All mentioned above are creating greenhouse gasses on a vast scale.
Coupled with the fact that they are now using the unsustainable crops to make fuel at a barely positive outcome, all the while ruining the ability of the ground to support human life being advanced by subsidies that should be used to prepare the ground we have to support a local food base with simple biological and cost effective practices.
If it is not done soon, we will not have the energy left to amend the soil to bring back its normal state. One in which can support life of all kinds and reduce carbon emission as well as carbon sequester much of what we have created in our last 100 years.
Once again a too simple practice is bowled over for technology, but then who has the ear of the money managers, and God forbid if the common man could make a fair living producing, selling local and direct.
Farmer Tim

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It's already happened - it's called the Bush administration. The analogy is appropriate too. We think of Pearl Harbor as a vicious sneak attack - that is exactly what Bush and company have done to the environment, in the name of corporate greed.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Why should business worry about the consequences of global warming? Social responsibility and business are two different worlds. Where else do you think Bush learned how to invade and occupy Iraq and then whine about how it is necessary to let our troops be sitting ducks in a civil war--the Brits had been through the very same experience earlier in history. Rewriting history is a GOP trait. Domestically, it's called advertising.

Avoiding disaster requires leadership. When was the last time we saw leadership in Washington, DC? Andrew Jackson?

We will have to crash and burn before anything is done about the environment, just as corporate management has let our once world-dominant auto industry crash and burn. American auto manufacturers may have to shut down and lay off their workers, but they won't lose their money, just stockholders' money.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Wow, I am impressed. The hysteria is pretty amazing. Chicken Little is not just a poor cartoon movie but the mantra of the looney left! Everything is the cause of global warming. I am surprised someone didn't stub their toe and blame global warming. A below average hurricane season, must be because of global warming. Yea, and buying a Grand Vitara instead of a Hummer, the planet is now saved!

We can't predict the weather 2 days from now, how in the world can we predict global warming? The hurricane forcast for this past season was off by a huge margin. To economically imperil this nation and planet to possibly stave off global warming is ridiculous. The same scientists now say we can't even do anything at this point anyways.

The looney left has never made sense to me. Removing a brutal dictator and giving a nation a chance to decide for themselves if they want freedom and democracy should be viewed as an amazing opportunity and we should be proud of that. Instead the looney left wants to cut and run. Lets see if we can establish a new set of bases for terrorists and destabilize an entire country. Let's prove to the world and all the despots that America will not follow through and will grow tired and run away from anything. Let's just ask to be attacked again. It is a little off topic but it is all part of the same irrational and emotional perspective of the looney left.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Human excrement + nuclear waste = Hydrogen

combining two watse streams to generate electricity.

sewage is the only viable source of sustainable renewable materials capable of sufficent volume to replace the fossil fuel powered electrical generating facilities.

Dennis Baker

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

What the world needs is a process by which to convert stupidity and/or ignorance to energy. Then the Right and religious fundamentalists would actually have a useful purpose. Instead of wasting energy with blowhard stupidity, they could generate it. Perhaps by using a combination of a Stirling engine to capture to heat energy of the hot air and a windmill to capture the translational motion of the hot air would be ideal. Also, a gigantic see-saw device might be practical in that it could hold a very large number of Republicans upon it's surface. Then, all one would need to do is alternate between showing pictures of prominent Democrats at opposite ends and they'd rush that picture en masse and thereby generate energy.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I hope things continue to get warmer if only in the hopes that you all die of hysteria. If you folks look beyond the history of your own existence you'd find (and no doubt reject because it violates the template you've accepted) that there have been times in our past which were actually warmer than now. There have also been times when the climate was cooler than now and as recently as the 1970's there was hysteria over global cooling. Its all BULLSHIT based on enviro-whackos creating crisis ex nihilo because they truly believe that "gaia" is doomed because of the puny and irresponsible efforts of man(and cow farts) to alter global climate. Just keep telling yourselves that you're going to die by slow cooking. I'll just sit back at laugh at ya from the air conditioned comfort of my well insulated home and/or my monster SUV. You folks are really pathetic.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Dems shall stay away from Environmental extremists
or in 2008 they will get another Bush and
both houses controlled by republicans

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It doesn't matter if global warming really does mark the end of the world, with the exception of the religious who are anxiously awaiting the rapture, people whom I only have a problem with when their religion becomes an excuse to be lazy, or to try to change someone’s life without any contribution to our survival as a species. Which brings up the crux of the global warming issue? It is framed as a life or death struggle against the greedy people making money under the current system, which they have set up through legislation to make sure it lasts as long as possible for them. This outlines the societal problem with people. People are genetically written to be a certain way; one of those characteristics is greed. No political system (capitalism, communism, or whatever) will work 100% when this is not acknowledged and planned for. Furthermore, we are not all created equal, why else do professional sports players get paid so much, but more to the point; this is true of a person’s morality. As global warming exposes the greed of each player in the system, let it remind us that laws need to be written to exclude greed from our government. Governments' only goals should be the survival of our species in the most stress free egalitarian way possible. One final point, it is morally wrong to put profit ahead of health, of both the planet and an individual. Ensuring less polluting ways of enjoying the comforts of modern life is what our government is there to do for us. If it really is harder to make less polluting machines then it should create more jobs, the problem is those jobs aren't going to the old money, they would take away from the currently wealthy, hence no change. When enough people get mistreated by the system the new majority will set a new course.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

From the article:
". . .manufacturing sectors around the world are more energy-efficient than the US."

We pat ourselves on the back incessantly about what a fine nation we are, and how we are home to "the best and the brightest." If so, then why are we always the last to "get it?"

Note to american corporations: It's a rhetorical question.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

So California's going to reduce its ecological "footprint" at the same time our population explodes due to immigration, which we can't even discuss without being called nasty names.

Ultimately, knee-jerk liberals are just as absurd as money-grubbing neocons.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The PR firm Edelman, recently retained by the American Petroleum Institute for $100 million or so, ran this same ad program for the European Comission: "You control climate change. Turn Down. Switch Off. Recycle. Walk." Check their website - they also work for Shell. After all, global warming's all your fault - oil and coal interests have nothing to do with it... really.

$100 million dollar PR efforts have only one real goal: protect the profit margins of the corporate clients who are footing the bill by any means necessary. Edelman is a big advocate of using the blogosphere to 'get the message out' as well.

Meanwhile, the British press is reporting that 2007 will likely be the hottest year on record:

"World faces hottest year ever, as El Niño combines with global warming
By Cahal Milmo
Published: 01 January 2007
A combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system is set to make 2007 the warmest year on record with far-reaching consequences for the planet, one of Britain's leading climate experts has warned. As the new year was ushered in with stormy conditions across the UK, the forecast for the next 12 months is of extreme global weather patterns which could bring drought to Indonesia and leave California under a deluge."

We need regulations: fuel efficiency standards for all automobiles sold in the US (i.e. CAFE), strict limits on coal combustion, and an end to massive subsidies for industrial agriculture and petroleum exploration - instead, solar, wind and sustainable biofuel production should be subsidized. Edelman and the API will do as much as they can to prevent this from happening - all so that coal and oil tycoons can continue to enjoy inflated profits.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This weekend I had occasion to pause and realize that several events will all come together just as I am about to retire: Global warming will no longer be stoppable; oil depletion will be recognized and begin its economic devastation; and several million baby boomers will be pulling their money out of 401k's and IRAs as required by law all at once. 2017 does not look like a good year!

If we are going to talk about global warming and the affects of man on this planet, we need to start by taking personal responsibility for how we live our lives. All three of the events I mentioned above are directly connected, and if they are not addressed by those of us who have to power to act, they will destroy the world completely for future generations.

So, start by looking at where you invest your hard earned dollars. How many of you look at the criteria for social and environmental responsibility of the companies you invest in? Not many, I suspect, you just go with what your stock broker or financial adviser suggests. Insist that your money go into companies that are working on solutions to energy production; organic food production; local businesses, and if the stock brokers will not cooperate, do your investing online by researching the companies you invest in. And for Godsake's do not put these investments in mandatory withdrawal accounts like 401K's or IRAs which only help big businesses keep your investment capital tied up. Remain flexible in how you invest.

Second, start the equivalent of victory gardens in your neighborhoods and at your home. Support CSA's, farmer's markets, and local food producers. Boycott large food chains until they return to buying locally. Get HOA's to change landscaping rules so that front yards and parks can be converted into vegetable and fruit production for the people in the developments. Demand legal action against companies like Monsanto, Conagra, Pfizer, Archer Daniels Midland, and all the rest of the industrial ag companies for endanger the public health and creating environmental disaster areas where we once grew food, at the local, state, and federal levels. Demand that these companies be broken up and their land sold to organic farmers and ranchers. Demand that their heritage seed patents be revoked. Take back your food system.

Finally, stop driving gas guzzlers. Use alternative energy public transportation (and demand it if it is not available); ride a bike or walk. Demand cities enact environmental regualtions that are tougher than federal or state laws for your communities. Demand that developers make new homes energy independent with the use of solar and wind power. Demand that tax credits be made permanent that are sufficient to offset at least 50% of the cost of installation of these systems. Demand that developers and utilities recharge water tables and use recycled grey water for landscaping use.

In short, stop talking and start acting. We created this mess, now it is up to us to clean up. We are the only ones who have the capital and political clout right now to do this. Corporations claim to provide us with what we demand in the marketplace, so change the marketplace by changing the nature of the demand. Withhold the demand, and the marketplace will change. ACT!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The question is, what is the responsible thing to do when the ship is sinking? As a broad approach, I think that's the way to look at where we are. And, I don't think there are any answers that have been adequately dreamed up yet, since this is all unprecendented, the scale of the 'catastrophe' (FANTASTIC word, downward/falling movement of star)

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Way I see it, until people far and wide acknowledge that things are going to keep getting worse, they’re going to keep getting UNBEARABLY worse.

Happy New Year anyway

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

To be perfectly honest, I think mother nature is going to sort out the overpopulation issue for us. H5N1, SARS, AIDS and other fast-evolving diseases will do what humans have heretofore been so unwilling to do - drastically reduce human populations. This rather macabre solution will ironically create a whole new dilemma that will likely dispense with a few hundred million more . . . Just what will we do with all those dead bodies?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Inspired in part by former Vice President Al Gore, Arlington County officials said they plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent over the next five years.

The plan, announced by new County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson at the county's Jan. 1 meeting, calls for purchasing more wind-generated electricity, making county buildings more energy efficient and adding hybrid vehicles to the county's fleet of cars, along with other initiatives.

County residents who purchase hybrid vehicles also would receive a tax break on the county car tax under the plan.

Ferguson said he was inspired to launch the initiative after seeing Gore's documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

"Our climate is changing, and that change is causing harm," Ferguson said. "The question is, what can each of us do to slow the trend and eventually reverse it?"

Arlington joins Montgomery County, Md., and other local governments in the Washington, D.C., region that have launched similar environmental initiatives.

The board's plan calls for the county to increase the amount of wind power it buys from 3 percent to 5 percent. The county will also refit one or two county buildings with solar technology and require all new major public buildings to be green-certified.

Plans also call for planting 1,200 trees this year and handing out 2,000 fluorescent light bulbs at local fairs and other events.

Costs for the initiative are unknown. Ferguson estimated it would entail about $5 million in upgrades to municipal buildings, which he said will be recouped in lower utility costs. The goal is to reduce energy usage in county facilities by 2 percent annually through 2012.

The energy initiatives are a natural fit for a county that prides itself on smart growth and promoting mass transit, Ferguson said.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

fund alternative renewables such as solar, wind, biofuels, etc ...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

When I was 16 years young, I helped run an environmental storefront with a couple of guys. We sold books, on weekends we did something that was then a radical act: we recycled, we tried to educate. One guy grew up, went to college and became an international investment banker. I'd love to hear that the other one became something much more noble. I should have dated him instead of the future investment banker.

This was in the 1968-69 and 70 era. We were marching for Peace, standing for Justice, raising consciousness, and trying to save the Earth. Our leaders were all killed; probably by the government. Stevie Wonder sang that in one of his songs. He sang: '...you killed all our leaders, we don't even have to do nothin' to you, you'll cause your own country to fall..." He was right.

Here is what we knew then:
1. The planet was in serious trouble. It could be dying. We could be killing our earth home. There was a fragile web of life and we were part of that web.
2. There was serious overpopulation. There was serious pollution and toxic waste.
3. Corporations didn't care. They had no consciousness. They were profit motivated entites. The men (and it was 100% men at that time) didn't want to hear this message.
4. Recycling was not just important, it was necessary.
5. If Rachel Carson was right, we would all die. All life would suffer or perish. There would be a "Silent Spring".
6. There would be much slow suffering and unending sadness.
7. The large mammals would go first.
8. The seas would die.
9. We must act now (then).
10. Solar and wind energy were our best hope.

We also knew we were all sisters and brothers; cousins; one family. We didn't know this because of science, we knew it in our hearts and in our souls. We sang, we danced, we marched. Somehow we also knew we all came from the same Mother. We knew the animals were to be understood, and the planet to be cherished. That's why we marched, gathered at Woodstock, sang for Peace, Peace NOW. That's why we thought it wise to make love and not war.

I entered the workforce in 1970s. The men in the workplace didn't want me there. It was their MAN'S world. They didn't want "mommy" there. We would see. SEE what they were doing. For 23 years they fought my existence. They had been fighting the female much longer than that. They tried to limit the power and influence of the feminine in the worklplace. They hurt many, MANY women. When we spoke of fairness, they called us "libbers". When I spoke of the earth or solar power, they called me a loser or an "old hippie" I was in fact, a utopian. I wanted the Earth to survive. For their/our children and for all life. Their punishment was brutal. They lied... they did anything to win. They "won".

In those years of my youth, I had often been moved to tears by what I knew, I mourned, I became so saddened by what I knew. Today, now I know. I am calm. I can only try and enlighten, try and help.

What do I know? I know that this is it. This is our last chance at greentime, rejuvenation, survival, evolution. I know we must change.

I moved to the country, I didn't have kids, I built a solar house, I built a small barn, a pond, all so I could "survive".

But you know what? Surviving isn't enough. It's not enough, if the planet doesn't survive, nothing will... none of us will.

We will have destroyed ALL. All the beauty, all the diversity, the great tigers, the great bears, the sweet Pandas, all the kittens and puppies, the fish, the birds, the sky. All the gifts that bring us joy. ALL.

Is that to be our legacy?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

There is lots of evidence that the current American administration is even actually "pro Global Warming." First off, major US companies have "sat in" on several "closed door" meetings with Congressional members and the Administration. Bush tried to get several laws passed to bypass more restrictive state laws on emissions. The current EPA refuses to enforce clean air and water standards already in law. Cheney has quipped that "global warming" could help the USA by warming up parts of the US North. So, it is not a matter of the USA not believing in global warming, it is more likely that they probably do, but don't care or see it as a positive. The US example to other countries is control emissions and pollution "even less" then you do now if it will help your companies. As for the unpredicability of what global warming could do, it's likely Bush/Cheney could care less, since they know better anyway. Just as they knew best when they invaded Iraq.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As a Canadian, particularly a Calgarian, I must support Global Warming. In Calgary, our winters are long (though we don't get a lot of snow, but that is bad, because atleast snow is pretty, dead grass for 6 months sucks), and our summers aren't very nice either. Basically, short of the Canadian Arctic, Calgary has the worst weather in Canada, and I would like the change that. The more polluting we do, the warmer it will get, and the nicer it will become. Besides, Calgary's sizeable economy is entirely based on oil, and tough environmental regulations only hurt us. I would prefer to continue to be able to charge 500$ an hour as a lawyer (I am not one yet, but will be soon). And another thing: if the arctic melts, Canada will have easier access to the oil under our northern waters (yes, the NW passage is CANADIAN water, not international waters as everyone else claims, and we will enforce our territorial soveriegnty). So what if large parts of Europe, Australia, the Southern States and even a part of central Canada around the Hudson Bay flood? I don't care about anything outside of Canada; and within Canada, I don't care very much about northern Manitoba or Saskatchewan. If floodings cause massive damage around the world, then steel, lumber, oil, and grain prices all go up, which means more $$$ for Canada. And all of my stocks go up.

Go Global Warming Go!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We have another Nostradamus, Pat Robertson.
He predicting for US tsunami and nuclear war next year.
And actually doing everithing for end of the world to happen
(as bible predicting).
Good company for environmental DOOMsdayers.
We have to put them all on one big Titanic

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I'm going to challenge the first statement in this article. The world's economy is growing only because central banks are creating money and credit as fast as their fat little fingers can generate it. That isn't a "robust economy". That's a bubble economy.

In the end, we'll have a credit collapse. This will do wonders for the energy and global warming problem. Hell of a way to solve a problem!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The last time someone (a War Pig bastard, actually) wrote about the necessity of a "Pearl Harbor event", "waking up" America to the "threat of global 'Islamic' terrorism", they ended up flying a bunch of planes full of very dead, very gassed innocent people and a handful of their duped agents pretending to be Arab hijackers into the ground and into a few buildings full of innocent people to create, amazingly, just such a perfect "Pearl Harbor" event. Coincidence?

But that's not really about the environment... this is... want a real global "Pearl Harbor event"? Watch the Chinese blow the La Palma volcano in the Canary Islands into the Atlantic the second Bush nukes Iran. That little "Pearl Harbor" event will slam a Tsunami the height of the former World Trade Towers into the entire East Coast from New England to the tip of Florida and reach as far as 20 miles inland.

Good-bye New York, arrivederchi Washington DC, and adios Florida from sea to shining sea. Hello, nation's new capitol, Denver. Underground. FAR underground.

That fills the bill perfectly for your global "Pearl Harbor" environmental event. Although not caused by global warming.

Just by the never-ending greed, desperation, and stupidity of good ole' Amerikan Nazi War Pigs. And how the rest of the world deals with Nazis.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We need to start using electric cars again. (they were abolished by the goverment back in '84. We need to start pooling existing cars to have maximum passenger usage for each trip. We need to have at least one day per week with all cars off the road. We need to start walking more.
We need to re-examine geothermal energy resources.
Instead of the idea of pumping water 3- 4 miles underground to absorb the heat from beneath the earth, then collecting the heat energy through a series of heat exchangers, we need to look at installing efficient superconductors to transfer the heat to the earth's surface instead. This, combined with wind powered generators and electrical solar panels would help reduce the number of nuclear reactors being built worldwide.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Just a thought, and maybe a bit inhumane; but its criminals so who cares? Just strap em to a hampster ball or something like that, and force em to generate electricity. At the very least they could power the jail. Think about it, Green Prisons.

Now I know some of you are going to say that that is cruel. But I'm only talking about violent and repeat offenders, the guys who don't deserve humane treatment. And I know what you all will say: "everyone is entitled to humane treatment; it's what seperates us from the animals", or something along those lines. But we are animals, and besides, when someone commits a violent crime, they give up their rights as a person so far as I'm concerned. I don't support the death penalty becuase occasionaly the innocent are killed, however I fully support this idea. Put the criminals to work, and not just making liscence plates, make em generate the electricity needed to run the facility they are in. And whip them when they slack off.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Here's another AlterNet article that's related... something we each can do on our own, regardless of what happens in DC or Detroit.

Meat Is a Global Warming Issue
By Dan Brook, E Magazine. Posted August 24, 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/40639/

Vegetarianism does more to fight global warming, according to studies from the UN Food & Ag Org and the Univ of Chicago, than any one of the ten things on Al Gore's list (of course it's best to do as many as possible though).

Also see

Another Inconvenient Truth
www.anotherinconvenienttruth.org

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Right, I didn't read maybe the last ten posts, but from what I have gathered even this discussion here is becoming a debate . . . some people just don't care, they deny it because they simply cannot be bothered to deal with the fact that they have to get off their behinds and do something.

Personally I feel useless. There is nothing one person can do against global warming . . . yes finally people have accepted that the globe is warming. I agree with the person at the beginning saying that we should stop acting so unbelievably stupid and we should DO SOMETHING. Sitting around talking is not going to get anyone anywhere. In the end we are at fault and we only deserve another Ice Age to come upon us.

I could ramble on forever, but it's pointless, no use wasting all this energy if nothing anyone says will get heard anyway.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Just when we thought humans were responsible for global warming, now the truth comes out!. (google termites co2) Termites produce more co2 than all living creatures (that would include humans, human activities...driving, animals....cows etc) How come we don't hear this from the left? Truthfully though, I would have to agree with the concept of global warming. If we came from an ice age....there has been a substantial amount of global warming. People even pay big money to go to warmer climates. I haven't met anyone who want to go back to an ice age. Sell crazy somewhere else, we're all full up here.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]