Climate Change Dispatch news

---

• Micro-economics of the End of the World
• Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect
• Astroturf goes green side up

Micro-economics of the End of the World Posted: 23 Feb 2011 09:21 AM PST As I sit contemplating my under-employment and its various causes, it became clear to me that my natural sunny disposition has hampered me. Too much sunshine has always been known to be harmful, incidentally. Consider the doomsayer, a man who leads a charmed life in our culture. The doomsayer has a natural advantage over his more sanguine colleague. If he is, like most are, an academic, he writes a grant with the title, "The Calamity That Awaits Us When The Climate Changes." The granting agency is skeptical, but they reason: "Although the probability of calamity is low, if it does occur the effects will be calamitous. Therefore, our doling out this meager sum is nothing compared to what it would cost us if the calamity occurred."

Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect Posted: 23 Feb 2011 09:11 AM PST The "greenhouse effect," very simplified, is this: solar radiation penetrates the atmosphere and warms the surface of the earth. The earth's surface radiates thermal energy (infrared radiation) back into space. Some of this radiation is absorbed and re-radiated back to the surface and into space by clouds, water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases. …

Astroturf goes green side up Posted: 23 Feb 2011 07:02 AM PST George Monbiot Image via Wikipedia George Monbiot is concerned about 'astroturf', the name he gives to fake grassroots support for various things he disapproves of: Software like this [Persona] has the potential to destroy the internet as a forum for constructive debate. It jeopardizes the notion of online democracy. Comment threads on issues with major commercial implications are already being wrecked by what look like armies of organised trolls – as you can sometimes see on guardian.co.uk.  The internet is a wonderful gift, but it's also a bonanza for corporate lobbyists, viral marketers and government spin doctors, who can operate in cyberspace without regulation, accountability or fear of detection. So let me repeat the question I've put in previous articles, and which has yet to be satisfactorily answered: what should we do to fight these tactics?

You are subscribed to email updates from Climate Change Dispatch To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610