Sunspot drought could cool temps

Earth is experiencing a sunspot drought which, if it persists, may deliver a make-or-break test of the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

Do we need coal for power? Yes | StarTribune.com

The environmentalists are right to argue that we need to move to alternative and renewable energy, but they are at this time incapable of providing base-line power.

What’s wrong with eco-stunts : The New Yorker

There’s something a tad disingenuous here. Beavan is, after all, a man whose environmental activism began over lunch with his agent. And it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in electrical engineering to see through his claims to experimental rigor. Indeed, in its own candlelit way, his project is almost as incoherent as Farquharson’s. When No Impact Man shuts off the power at his apartment, you might think that his blog would have to go dark (and along with it his compulsive checking of his ratings on Technorati). But every day Beavan bikes to the Writers Room, on Broadway at Waverly Place, and plugs in his laptop. Meanwhile, Michelle scooters off to work at the offices of BusinessWeek, and Isabella spends the day at the (presumably electrified) apartment of a sitter.

Firing Blanks on FOIA Part II | OpenMarket.org

And, of course, there’s no guarantee that a reduction in American emissions will amount to a reduction in global emissions. We have seen the response to European cap-and-trade schemes being the relocation of facilities to other jurisdictions. If so, the effective foreign aid program of Waxman-Markey might actually be a loss of American jobs to be replaced by developing world jobs, with no emissions reduction at all. That would be very generous of us, but not quite what the authors of this study have in mind.