The Hard Questions of Climate Change - Boing Boing

Deer Ticks and Lyme disease are moving North, says Durland Fish, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. But they're also moving East and South. In fact, he says, what looks like a climate-triggered expansion actually has more to do with reforestation, re-population of wild deer herds and suburban lifestyles that put more people in contact with both. So, then, hooray! Climate change isn't a problem and the hippies can suck it.

Well, again, not necessarily. By 2080, the global mean temperature is expected to increase by more than 5.4° F.
...the mosquitoes that spread malaria do favor tropical temperatures. So you'd think climate change would put more people at risk as regions bordering the tropics heat up. But Kevin Lafferty, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, pointed out in the April issue of Ecology that rising temperatures also mean some currently malaria-prone areas will become too hot for mosquitoes. Equally important, according to Lafferty, is the fact that many of those border regions are far wealthier than current malaria hotbeds, so it's really unlikely malaria will make a comeback in places like the United States. Sure, the South is getting warmer, but Americans still live air-conditioned, indoor lifestyles, and still have relatively high levels of access to mosquito repellants and malaria treatments. In his Ecology paper, Lafferty reported data from computer models suggesting that, while the worst strain of malaria could expand beyond its current habitat to gain 23 million new human hosts by 2050, it's also going to lose access to some 25 million people.

Twitter / Tim Niziol

Kerry-Boxer climate change bill pegs carbon tax at $15/ton [150 times the current cost at the Chicago Climate Exchange] - very expensive!

US Senate Panel Unlikely To Debate CO2 Bill Before Nov - WSJ.com

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Senate environment committee likely won't consider a landmark climate bill until November, officials and Democratic aides close to the matter said.

The Environment and Public Works Committee climate bill schedule - which is still being drafted - offers another sign that one of Obama's top policy priorities is unlikely to make it to the Senate floor until next year.

U.S. May Not Make Emissions Pledge in Copenhagen, Pershing Says - Bloomberg.com

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. may not agree to cut greenhouse-gas emissions in a new treaty this year because there is no domestic law setting a framework, the country’s top negotiator said at United Nations climate talks in Bangkok.
...
“It will be extraordinarily difficult for the U.S. to commit to a specific number in the absence of action from Congress,” [U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing] said. “The question is open as to how much we can do. It’s not really possible to answer.”

Missouri Power Shift Summit

Wiley said he's learned the way to make progress on reducing carbon emissions is to frame the concerns as "a people issue" rather than a kind of scary environmental issue. He said real people are being affected by the scourge of carbon pollution.

"Missouri gets so much of its energy from coal, but there is no such thing as clean coal," insisted Wiley. "The increases in asthma cases and other diseases caused by the carbon pollution are the evidence that we need to change how we get power.