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

The Associated Press: New Energy Uses for Asphalt
The Associated Press reports on a Dutch company taking a new approach with asphalt, pulling heat from the source and putting it to use in homes and offices.

Solar energy collected from a 200-yard stretch of road and a small parking lot helps heat a 70-unit four-story apartment building in the northern village of Avenhorn. An industrial park of some 160,000 square feet in the nearby city of Hoorn is kept warm in winter with the help of heat stored during the summer from 36,000 square feet of pavement. The runways of a Dutch air force base in the south supply heat for its hangar.

Auto: World’s Ugliest Car Gets Unsurprisingly High Gas Mileage
The design of this newly marketed solar car may not be so appealing or powerful looking, but it can acquire high gas mileage and be better for the environment.

Note to automakers: cars of the future are meant to be fierce. Sure, they may get the equivalent of 100mpg through electric efficiency, but they’d better look like they can decapitate onlookers during the morning commute…
Then again, any car capable of 44mph speeds for three hours at a time—that runs on nothing but the sun—has our ears perked.

Designed for the streets of Taiwan, the car uses a airplane-grade Nomex honeycomb body that makes it just 550lbs with seats. The light weight brings efficiency, so much so, in fact, that the developers claim that the car just needs a few hours of sunlight to recharge its batteries for another 3 hours of driving. But we’ll admit it—with a solar panel that tiny on top of the car, we can’t help but be a little skeptical about that figure.

Then again, for its groundbreakingly low $24,600 price tag, we’ll be willing to give it a chance over this more expensive, equally hideous alternative.

Forget the Globes! It’s All about the Green Grammy Awards - LIME
Lime reports on the Grammys going greener as celebrities also take more steps to do and promote the same.

At the Hollywood Goes Green conference held in early December, there was discussion of how the Natural Resources Defense Council will be “greening” the Grammys—which air Feb. 10 at 8pm on CBS — by reducing emissions, using recycled products and biodegradable dishware and providing presenters and staff with hybrid vehicles…

In other award show news, The Office’s Rainn Wilson has been tapped to host the Independent Spirit Awards, which I told you are majorly green this year… down to celebrities —gasp!—carpooling to the event. In a press release, Rainn expressed his excitement at being show host, saying: “It is truly an honor to be asked… I like to think that I bring a bit of an ‘independent spirit’ to the proceedings as I recently installed a gun rack in my Prius.”

New Bill to Raise Energy Efficiency and Encourage Saving Measure - SlashGear
Slashgear talks about the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

The new energy bill, Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed by President Bush has meaningful purpose not only to increase efficient in automobile industrial but also the daily used household electronic product.

New regulation requires that by 2012 to 2014, all light bulbs must use 25 to 30 percent less energy than they do today. It also promoting more efficient home electronic devices and require energy consumption to be disclosed to consumers. That including your PC, monitor, set top box, DVR and flat screen TV, power adapter. Battery charger was excluded from the Art but will be reviewed if changes are need in the future in July 2011 by the Department of Energy