Freeman Dyson and the irresistible urge to be contrary about climate change: [Alarmist] Scientific American Blog

Eminent physicist Freeman Dyson raised eyebrows a month ago when he told the New York Times Magazine that a little extra carbon dioxide—and global warming—might turn out to be good for the planet. So when we saw his name on an event around the corner from Scientific American's offices we figured we'd go hear his criticisms, dubbed "Climate Disasters, Safe Nukes and Other Myths," firsthand.

At the luncheon put on by the Cato Institute, when the talk turned to climate change Dyson started out sounding as if the whole thing was overblown, noting that the prospect of global warming is a problem that should be taken seriously. But he also said that no one should be alarmed about it yet.

Then he outlined his main criticism: Too much of the science of climate change relies on computer models, he argued, and those models are crude mathematical approximations of the real world. After all, a simple cloud—small in scale, big in climate effects, the product of evaporation and condensation, all of which it is difficult to create equations for—eludes the most sophisticated climate models.

So climate modelers turn to what they call parameters or, as Dyson likes to call them: "fudge factors."...

BBC - Climate Change: The Blog of Bloom: Oh dear god, please don't tell me chocolate is killing the planet?

Every kilo of dark chocolate we scoff generates two kilos of greenhouse gas, making it twice as climate-friendly as the worst option, white chocolate, say the report's authors, Sybille Büsser and Niels Jungbluth.

Hmm: BP stepping off the "green" bandwagon?

The energy company BP, which famously rebranded itself as 'Beyond Petroleum' in 2000 and pledged that being 'Green' was a core company belief, has replaced its trademark 'Green' brand value with a committment to be 'Responsible', according to the BP website.

In practice, this means that BP wishes to be seen from now on as 'committed to the safety and development of our people and the communities and societies in which we operate ... no accidents, no harm to people and no damage to the environment.'