[Still more barking madness from the New York Times]: A Drawback to Urban Green Spaces - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

A study on urban green space says that the irrigation, fertilizer, mowing and leaf blowing all add up, emitting more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases than the spaces absorb. The study has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

“Lawns weren’t initially invented to store greenhouse gases — they have a lot of other purposes such as recreation,” said Claudia Czimczik a researcher at University of California, Irvine who is a co-author of the study.
...
Or maybe, she added, “we should use push mowers.”

[Here's a scientific experiment for you: Put Dr. Czimczik in charge of mowing the Central Park lawns for a summer, then find out if she's still keen on the idea of preventing bad weather by using push mowers] 

[Central Park: 250 acres of lawns]

Twitter / Lanette Taylor

Al Gore, you colossal Carbon Footprint you, it is now snowing in my Las Vegas backyard.

How Eating Grass-Fed Beef Could Help Fight Climate Change - TIME

Cattle on this Hardwick, Mass., farm grow not on feedlots but in pastures, where their grazing helps keep carbon dioxide in the ground

Prentice feels pressure to talk climate change at G8, G20 summits

...for the Harper government, the accord is a "turning point" in how the world approaches climate change, and is worth pushing into practice as soon as possible before any momentum is lost, Prentice said.

U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln: Lincoln Signs on to Resolution Blocking Heavy-Handed EPA Regulation

Washington – U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, issued the following statement today announcing her support for legislation to block efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Lincoln agreed to cosponsor a resolution of disapproval to be introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

“I am very concerned about the burden that EPA regulation of carbon emissions could put on our economy and have questions about the actual benefit EPA regulations would have on the environment. Heavy-handed EPA regulation, as well as the current cap and trade bills in Congress, will cost us jobs and put us at an even greater competitive disadvantage to China, India and others.

Heeding the political lessons of Glaciergate | The Australian

The real lesson is that our political leaders must continue to question, probe and analyse the evidence before committing to policies with profound consequences. This is not about letting the IPCC off the hook. Nor is is about denying the science. It is about applying a healthy degree of scepticism to scientific claims that drive policy.