Ethanol, Soy and Deforestation

A letter in Science last week from William Laurance of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute lays out a piece of the argument I’d not heard regarding the extent to which ethanol as fuel reduces, or doesn’t reduce, carbon emissions. The ethanol push in this country is causing U.S. farmers to shift from soy to corn. …

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Don’t Count La Nina Out Just Yet

Snowpack may be looking just dandy here in the Southwest for a La Nina winter, but Klaus Wolter’s latest experimental forecast suggests it would be unwise for us to get all cocky about our decisions to buy those full-season ski passes: My experimental forecast guidance for the late winter season (January-March 2008) continues to show …

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The China Problem

Joseph Kahn, Mark Landler and others had the latest yesterday in the New York Times series on the problems enveloping China’s rapid growth. The story uses the journalistic trope of moving from the illustrative particular to the more significant general issue underlying it. The particular in this case is the shift of steel production from …

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Santa Goes Green

This just in: NORTH POLE — Kris Kringle announced today that he has dropped the centuries-old tradition of stuffing coal into the stockings of naughty boys and girls. The decision comes at a time when record warm temperatures and thinning sea ice are threatening the very existence of Kringle’s North Pole toy-making and distribution center. …

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