Romney includes one wind rep on his 50-person Colorado energy task force | Grist

The Romney campaign Monday announced a 50-person Colorado energy advisory committee with a heavy tilt toward the mining and oil and gas industries.

Sea Ice in Arctic Measured at Record Low - NYTimes.com

The pace of that decline seems to be accelerating. But scientists are somewhat cautious in their predictions, given that sea ice is prone to natural variability. They have only a 33-year record of careful satellite observations, and before that, only sketchy data from maps and other historical sources.

Arctic Sea Ice Hits New and Early Summer Low for Satellite Era - NYTimes.com

[Revkin] There’s plenty of year-to-year, and even decade-to-decade variability to complicate things, as both modeling and observations have shown. And variations in the thickness and extent of sea ice cloaking the Arctic Ocean are driven by yet another set of complicating factors, ranging from long-term shifts in atmospheric pressure patterns to events as close-focus as the potent Arctic superstorm I reported on earlier this month.

That’s one reason that, even with today’s announcement that the sea ice reached a new low extent for the satellite era, I wouldn’t bet that “the Arctic is all but certain to be virtually ice free within two decades,” as some have proposed. I’d say fifty/fifty odds, at best.
....
But is this a situation that is appropriately described as a “death spiral”? Not by my standards.

This is one of the clearest examples of a regime...

"This is one of the clearest examples of a regime shift in the recent historical record. I think we still need to be open to the possibility that natural variability has played a role in the recent warming of the Arctic, but with each year that goes by without a return to the pre-2007 summertime Arctic climatology it seems more likely that the remarkable change that we have witnessed will prove to be irreversible."

— Reaction to five summers with Arctic sea ice concentration unrecovered from its precipitous decline in 2007 - by Mike Wallace, University of Washington climate scientist, on Arctic sea-ice trends and implications.

Hurricane Isaac is a Rainmaker for a Parched Heartland - NYTimes.com

One hurricane won’t end this summer’s drought (or save scorched crops). But the inland drenching predicted in an arc from Louisiana north through Illinois and Indiana will surely be welcomed.

How do I overcome my eco inertia? - The Globe and Mail

But all of our resolve crumbles when we’re running late: We take the car instead of our bikes, or grab and go at the grocery store instead of the local farmers’ market...
However, if we shift our thinking and recognize that we’ll still (we hope) be around 40 years from now – when, some say, close to a third of today’s plant and animal species may be extinct, and global supplies of vegetables, fruit and chocolate (even maple syrup!) will be at risk – we take the issue more seriously.