David Roberts on the Simple Climate Problem - NYTimes.com

I disagree with his interpretation of the 2-degree warming threshold as scientifically — rather than politically — established and his flat assertion that there’s no path to climate stability without a peak in global emissions of greenhouse gases within the next 10 years. His reading of the reviewed climate literature is selective (but we’re all guilty of some confirmation bias or we wouldn’t be human).

Still, the talk is a good reminder that the basic science pointing to substantial human-driven climate change is clear, even as substantial and persistent uncertainty still obscures the timing and extent of the worst impacts.

Obama’s ‘clean energy’ strategy is money wasted - The Washington Post

To the extent that it’s coherent at all, the federal energy “portfolio” represents a return to industrial policy — governmental selection of economic winners — which was fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s, before it collapsed under the weight of its intellectual and practical contradictions.

As such, current clean-energy programs are no likelier to pay off than President Jimmy Carter’s Synthetic Fuels Corp., which blew $9 billion, or President George W. Bush’s $1.2 billion program for hydrogen vehicles. [Via Mark T]

'Marine guardian' lobbies to weaken climate change regulations : Indybay