archive

The global response to climate change

A review of The Human Footprint: A Global Environmental History by Anthony Penna. An excerpt from A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change by William H. Calvin. An interview with John Shepherd on books on science and climate change. Is Earth past the tipping point? A review of How to Cool the Planet by Jeff Goodell. Despite its potential to trigger conflict, geoengineering will likely be part of the global response to climate change. Could a rich man's experiment trigger an Ice Age? A new effort will be launched to craft research restrictions for geoengineering, or large scale efforts to tinker with the planet's climate system (and more and more). From Wired, 200 scientists gather in an attempt to determine how research into the possibilities of geoengineering the planet to combat climate change should proceed; six ways we’re already geoengineering Earth; and an interview with Eli Kintisch, author of Hack the Planet: Science's Best Hope — or Worst Nightmare — for Averting Climate Catastrophe: "Geoengineering is a bad idea whose time has come" (and an excerpt). Hacking the planet: who decides? An interview with James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change (and more). Marc Morano broke the Swift Boat story and effectively stalled John Kerry's presidential run; now he is working against an even bigger enemy — belief in climate change, and, somehow, he seems to be winning. More on Why We Disagree about Climate Change by Mike Hulme. The doubters of global warming are emboldened, but the experience of comparable assaults on the discipline of peace studies in the 1980s suggests that hostile scrutiny can have longer-term benefits. Urgent calls to escalate the war against climate skeptics may lead scientists and their organizations into a dangerous trap.