Feb 27 2009

Climate Changes

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

Several items on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

• Icecaps on both poles are melting faster than expected and Arctic sea ice is now at the lowest level recorded by satellite tracking, according to the International Polar Year survey. Greenland's glaciers are also thinning at an accelerating rate, resulting in rising sea levels.
• A NASA satellite designed to monitor greenhouse gas emissions--at a cost of $280 million--failed to reach orbit after launch and crashed near Antarctica, a blow to research on global warming.
• Google has produced an interactive map of carbon emissions, combining Google Earth with emissions data from the NASA-backed Vulcan project at Purdue University, to let businesses track pollution from their facilities, including factories, power plants, distribution centers and roads.
• President Barack Obama used his address to a joint session of Congress this week to urge passage of legislation that "places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America." He reaffirmed that commitment in his proposed new budget, which envisions revenues from auctioning carbon pollution permits starting at $15 billion a year in 2012. The budget document cites a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 83 percent by 2050.
  

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