Latest News on the Environment

New Report on Climate Change: A new combined study by the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK, the Center for American Progress in the US, and The Australia Institute, entitled Meeting the Climate Challenge, supports the “2 degrees” hypothesis, that if we allow pollutants from human activities to push the global average temperature two degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial revolution average, the increase will become self-perpetuating and inevitably wreak massive climate change around the globe. Of course, since the danger cannot be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, and would be astronomically expensive to address (even the US-repudiated Kyoto first steps would be woefully inadequate) the deniers are again out in full force saying it’s all biased alarmism. They haven’t come up with a credible explanation what motivation hundreds of scientific experts, many with Nobel prizes, would have to put their reputations on the line for a “hysterical” theory. Maybe they think the laboratories and scientific academies of the world are hotbeds of liberalism. This report is consistent with last year’s Pentagon report on the subject, which the science-hating Bush shrugged off saying he wan’t interested in hearing about “worst-case scenarios”. I guess Bush figures the Rapture is the answer to that.

Countries Rated for Environmental Sustainability: A new research report by Yale and Columbia Universities rates some Scandinavian and South American counties best at environmental protection. The report, prepared for the annual corporatist Davos conference, uses 75 factors in its evaluation, but also factors in country size, letting the horrifically polluted Russia off the hook, ranking 33rd. Canada ranked sixth, also an outrageous greenwash, while the US, despite its size, ranked 45th. Map of all country indices is shown above.

2 Responses to Latest News on the Environment

rich pure&simple says:

January 29, 2005 at 13:22

The U.S. dropped down because of its president. Doesn’t everyone know that?
Raging Bee says:

January 31, 2005 at 10:32

First, I’d be skeptical about that Yale and Columbia report, if only because it places Brasil above the US, despite their habit of destroying large amounts of rainforest over a chorus of international objections; and because, as you admitted, it let Russia off the hook despite their horrific environmental record both during and after the Communist era.Second, I’m not that familiar with the Pentagon Jeremiad you cited, but I believe it focused more on offering possible military responses to certain hypothetical crises, than on predicting which of them would actualy happen. That is, after all, the Pentagon’s job: to have planned responses on hand for any conceivable event, whether or not anyone thinks it’s likely to happen.