What's the carbon [dioxide] footprint of … the Iraq war? | Environment | guardian.co.uk

The direct human costs of wars are so great that it might seem flippant to think about their environmental impacts. But modern armed forces are rapacious consumers of energy and kick out vast quantities of carbon – emissions that may contribute towards human harm well beyond the battlefield.  [But the black smoke pictured isn't CO2, is it?]

How has 'Climategate' affected the battle against climate change? | David Adam | Environment | The Guardian

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: "It hasn't in any direct way affected the political process. Governments have scientific advisers who know this is just a storm in a teacup."

Crucial independent voters abandoning Obama, now under 40%, lowest ever | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

The new tracking finds that Obama's support among all voter segments has declined in the past year, but nowhere more than among independents.

Only 38% now support him, an 18-point drop from 52 weeks ago, when polls first began showing the nation's rapidly-growing population of independent voters peeling off, as Obama relentlessly pushed his healthcare plan and ignored polls saying jobs and the economy were uppermost on voters' minds.

REAL cause for climate alarm developing

Norm Kalmanovitch ... points out the problems that more global cooling will bring -- with starvation looming for the poorest

The next IPCC Report will be the first report that actually has scientific justification for being "alarmist" because by 2014 we will be well into solar cycle 24 and severe global cooling. This will confirm that the global cooling which started in 2002 is related to solar activity and the likelihood that the current solar activity pattern is mimicking the Dalton Minimum that brought about an extension of the Little Ice Age.