remiss, climate, oil

I have been remiss in blogging. Getting back in the saddle again with a few climate related stories.

In particular:

UN security council holds climate debate.

Pentagon study says oil reliance strains military.

I think a significant point to keep in mind that climate change and oil consumption, which go hand in hand to some extent, can have important global and national security ramifications.

Stricter emission limits get a boost.

To a large extent, some political actors seem to see the entire topic of environmentalism, whether it means addressing climate change, or even using compact fluorescent light bulbs (read further!), as some hare-brained socialist scheme to take down capitalism, the free market, and probably motherhood and apple pie. My opinion is that tackling environmental issues head-on with attention to both science and economics will protect capitalism, free markets, motherhood, and apple pie. In fact, our market-based economy is best suited to address not just the problems resulting from environmental issues, but also their root causes. And, in many cases, this can be done by providing consumers with information they can use to make informed choices.

And our market-based economy is sensing the opportunity in alternative fuels, per this report.

Arctic melt-off: ahead of schedule.

This last points out that recent research findings continue to support the thesis that the IPCC report was too conservative in terms of reflecting the impact of melting ice at the poles.

On the other hand, I've heard of a backlash against compact fluorescent light bulbs, due to the issues with cleaning up and disposing of the mercury that would spill in case a bulb breaks. Energy Star has this to say about CFLBs and their disposal. I know our transfer station offers fluorescent bulb recycling and safe disposal.