Grist writes about the underestimated toll global warming will take on the United States in the near future, increasing the sea-level rise by amounts that will leave many devastated.

What the scientific community has failed to communicate, and the public has failed to grasp, is that the U.S. is particularly vulnerable to very small increments of sea-level rise.

The IPCC Fourth Assessment projects a sea-level rise of 0.18 meters to 0.59 meters this century. Even though the report includes a caveat that this range does not include any significant contribution from the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, global warming skeptics continually characterize those who mention a six-meter sea-level rise as scaremongers.

There is also a common notion in circulation, advanced by the media and many studies on the impacts of climate change, that wealthier countries in the West will be able to adapt, while underdeveloped countries will bear the brunt of the impacts.

U.S. miscalculates threat of global warming | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

checkthemarkets.com - NYC Becoming a Big “Green” Apple
Seeinggreen reports on New York City taking a path of green, and saying enough to daily traffic jams that pump unhealthy pollution and greenhouse gases into the air.

It will begin with the yellow swarm of taxis that surges through the streets of NYC every day. Those taxis are about to turn green, and I don’t mean they will get a new paint-job.

Under the mayor’s plan, the entire fleet of 13,000 yellow cabs will change over to hybrids as they are replaced over the next 5 years. That makes good environmental sense and good business sense.

Most cabs today are Ford Crown Victorias, which get a measly 14 miles per gallon. Ratcheting up fuel efficiency to 30 miles per gallon would save the average taxi operator about $10,000 a year.

What’s good for New York could be good for the rest of the country. Cities emit 75% of the world’s global warming pollution. Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and other cities have taken steps to implement a variety of green practices. We hope Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas and Phoenix will be the next cities to implement a green plan for reducing CO2 and air pollution….

It will also make the air much healthier. Vehicles stuck in traffic can emit three times the pollution of cars moving freely. In fact, after London instituted congestion pricing in 2003, vehicle emissions fell by up to 20%.

Congestion pricing is just one piece of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s visionary plan to clean up the air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030. The “greenprint” covers everything from creating parks to making buildings more energy efficient.

Wired.com reports on the Democratic presidential candidates’ views on climate change as documented by the journal Science.

What do the would-be Presidents say about science? The journal Science just released its rundown of the most prominent candidates’ positions. None of the campaigns gave Science direct access to the candidates, though that may be a good thing: when it comes to details, advisers are probably the best sources of information. Below is a quick synopsis of the leading Democrats’ positions; the Republicans are here, and expect a future post on less-prominent candidates excluded by Science.

Barack Obama. The freshman senator from Illinois promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and spend $150 billion on biofuels. He’s supported embryonic stem cell research and increased funding for avian influenza programs. He also wants to double federal spending on basic research, expand internet access and spend $18 billion on science-related education initiatives. However, he’d take money from NASA programs to pay for this. Like Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, he promises to end political interference with science; unlike them, scientists applaud him for already doing this in his work as a community activist, state legislator and freshman Senator. But in that credit, some find reason for concern: will his ideals hold up on the national stage?

Wired.com Full article »

The world’s three largest light bulb makers said Thursday they will push European consumers to switch to energy-saving bulbs in a bid to cut carbon dioxide emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming.

Cutting back on carbon dioxide emissions is very important. Europe is paving the way for future energy conservation steps by switching to energy-saving bulbs. This simple idea in fact reduces the amount of power plants needed in Europe by 27. That is 27 fewer power plants to pollute our air and our planet.

Xerox Corp. on Monday unveiled a new paper it says uses half as many trees as traditional paper and reduces mailing costs.

Xerox has gone green! The company has just introduced a new kind of paper that is more beneficial to the environment, not made with the traditional chemicals, and is produced in a factory that is run off of hydroelectricity.