Unpublished Letters: Three from the Climate Change files ...

by A Siegel

WarrenS has taken on an admirable resolution: to send a letter to the editor (LTE) (or, well, a major politician) every single day, on the critical issues of climate change and energy.   This discusses his approach and here is an amusing 'template' to for rapid letter writing.

Now, I have always written letters and even had many published -- just not one every day.  WarrenS inspires me to do better.

Many newspapers state that they will reject letters that have been published elsewhere, thus I have not been blogging letters ... perhaps that should change. Thus, below is what might be the first in an "unpublished letters" series publishing some of those LTEs that don't get picked up by the editors.

continued at Daily Kos....

Climate Change News You Can Use

by billlaurelMD

Here's my first shot at a climate change news roundup diary. I'll do my best to do this justice.  There's a cover story of course, and a set of links to other stories of interest out then on the internets.

More below.

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Sunday Train: Sustaining Our Suburbs

by BruceMcF

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence

As Dean Baker reported on the (bookmark worthy) Real World Economics Review Blog, new home sales figures for July are out, and they are exactly as would have been expected when the Mortgage Brokers Association reported a slump in mortgage applications in May.

The stronger figures earlier in this year, in other words, included more than a normal rebound from a recession:

People who might have bought in the second half of 2010 or even 2011 instead bought their home before the tax credit expired. Now that the credit has expired, there is less demand than ever, leaving the market open for another plunge in prices. The support the tax credit gave to the housing market was only temporary

This does not mean that all policy response is futile: what it does mean is that the policy response must address the problem we are experiencing, not the problem we wish we were experiencing.

continued at Daily Kos....

Science vs. Reporting

by mem from somerville

There was an interesting item I heard this morning on my NPR station. It was from the show Living on Earth, and it was about the BP oil spill. But it wasn't so much about the spill itself--it was more about the scientific communications around the spill that were the issue. The segment was: Dude, Where's the Oil? and the scientist discussing it is Christopher Reddy of WHOI.

This story made some interesting points that I'd like to discuss here.

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Double Dealing Dirty Canadians Want To Clean You Up

by terryhallinan

They seem so nice.  So hospitable.  I once thought that the ubiquitous Tim Horton's with dank, weak coffee and pastries that only Burger King could make worse had to be a Canadian company that patriotic Canadians chose to patronize.  It's actually a division of Wendy's.  They will just let anybody in it seems.  Even let George Bush in despite his conviction for drunk driving.

Hey, I like Canadians - except when they're driving.  Only a Yellow Cab driver in New York City or an Angeleno creating new angels regularly can be more frightening behind the wheel than the average Canuck.

But they be doing the planet dirt, even worse than Americans.

An example below the fold.

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Stupid Goes Viral: The Climate Zombies of the New GOP

by RLMiller

After researching the causes of temperature fluctuations on earth, I found the largest factor to be the sun. The earth’s orbit changes. Also the earth’s spin and axis change over time. When areas of the earth are closer to the sun, the temperature is hotter and when they are further away, cooler. The sun also has more activity at times and less at other times. They have been able to map out large changes in the earth’s temperature over time to the sun. Times with no polar ice caps have corresponded to times when we were closer to the sun. Ice ages have corresponded to times when we were further from the sun. We should not punish the people of the United States financially by legislating on pseudo-science that has not been proven.

That's no ordinary tea partier.  That's a candidate for Congress.  And she's not alone.  

Meet the Climate Zombies.

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Dawn Chorus Birdblog: (Your) Best Bird Moments

by matching mole

Dawn Chorus hasn't appeared yet this AM.  Here is a fill-in diary.  If lineatus' diary appears I can take this down.

People reading this diary are here because they love birds.  Presumably you, dear reader, spend time observing our feathered friends be it from your kitchen window, in your neighborhood park, on vacation at a national park, or on the far side of the world.  During your bird watching hours you have had at least a few (hopefully many) experiences that were a bit above the rest.  Experiences that struck you strongly enough that, even if only for a moment, the world slipped away and the only thing left was the bird(s) in front of you.  I’d like to hear the stories of those moments.  I’ll start with a few of my own.

continued at Daily Kos....

BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership: 103

by Gulf Watchers

Please rec the new Mothership #104 here. This one has expired.
The current ROV DIARY: Daily Kos Gulf Watchers ROV #361 - Waiting for Liftoff - BP's Gulf Catastrophe - Yasuragi

The digest of diaries is here

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Pam LaPier's diary to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

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The Ethics Of Killing Poachers & Their Clients

by Rimjob

Last year, a report (pdf) claimed poaching of rhinoceroses is at a 15-year high. The animals are being killed for their horns, with the increased demand coming from Asia. Rhinoceros horn is used in "traditional" Asian medicine, with (bullshit) claims it can cure a host of maledictions from cancer to erectile dysfunction.

To combat this & other threats from poachers, some conservation groups have begun supplying equipment, mercenaries, and former special forces operatives to protect elephants, rhinos, and tigers.

A few days back, Scientific American had a post about a South African nature reserve's plan to deter/deal with the people who would reward the poachers that would kill their Rhinos. The reserve is attempting to lace a Rhino's horn with cyanide. If a Rhino should be killed & its horn taken to be used by some asshole wanting to get his dick hard, he might suffer death instead.

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Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Labor Day 2010 and NZ earthquake edition)

by Neon Vincent

Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.

This week's featured story comes from Agence France Presse by way of Discovery News.

Magnitude 7.1 Quake Rattles New Zealand

New Zealand's most destructive earthquake in nearly 80 years caused two billion dollars' worth of damage Saturday, felling buildings, tearing up roads and sending terrified residents fleeing into the streets.

Officials said it was "extremely lucky" no one was killed when the 7.0 magnitude quake shook the island nation's second-largest city of Christchurch just before dawn.

Frightened residents fled from their homes to find streets covered in rubble and glass, but despite the extent of the damage only two people were seriously injured in the city of 340,000 people.

More on this and other science, space, and environment stories after the jump.

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