Can climate change cause earthquakes? We look at the science and the spin | Carbon Brief

McGuire told us in an email:

"We are currently on a high-end emissions scenario track and prospects for getting off this any time soon look pretty bleak [...]. These scenarios are Met Office
Hadley Centre scenarios that build in carbon feedbacks, and are - in my opinion - very realistic. In relation to sea level, the consensus now is that a 1 - 2m rise is most likely by 2100."

'The problem for coal right now is entirely economic' – EPA's Lisa Jackson | Environment | guardian.co.uk

[Jackson] Pollution from coal-fired power plants comes from the extraction of the coal in some cases, the burning of the coal, which gives soot and smog-forming pollution, and mercury and lead and arsenic and cadmium and acid gases and then you've got to get rid of the ash! …One form of energy has to at least be subject to the same laws as the other forms are. That's what we've been working on as far as coal. I always tell people, it's not about coal, it's about the pollution that for too long has been associated with coal.

And then coal has another pollution problem, and that's carbon pollution: it's the most carbon-intense fossil fuel. And the president invested in carbon capture and sequestration technology as part of the Recovery Act. He said all along, I'm from a coal state, so I believe that if there's going to be a future for coal it has to be one that deals with carbon pollution, with climate change. So in my opinion the problem for coal right now is entirely economic. The natural gas that this country has and is continuing to develop is cheaper right now on average. And so people who are making investment decisions are not unmindful of that — how could you expect them to be? It just happens that at the same time, these rules are coming in place that make it clear that you cannot continue to operate a 30-, 40-, or 50-year old plant and not control the pollution that comes with it.

...All scientists should in my opinion take heed of the importance of the peer review process. Inside the Washington Beltway is very different than outside. Inside the Washington Beltway I'm not sure whether facts always matter, and that's a sad thing for our country. But oftentimes EPA's work is peer-reviewed and then peer-reviewed again — and yet it will be challenged by some report that hasn't been peer-reviewed at all. There needs to be equivalence there — inside, for policy-makers. That would be one thing I'd ask. More and more when people pull up some, um, interesting report, my first question is, who reviewed it? Where is the peer review? Because you would never allow me to submit something that wasn't peer-reviewed. And I think that's fair, and I think on both sides it should be that way — on the EPA side, or the government side, the public sector side, and on those who might challenge it.