The Guardian reports a new assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that we have eight years left, if that, to change our ways.
Greater energy efficiency, renewable electricity sources and new technology to dump carbon dioxide underground can all help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the experts said. But there could be as little as eight years left to avoid a dangerous global average rise of 2C or more....
...Most of the technology needed to stop climate change in its tracks already exists, but that governments must act quickly to force through changes across all sectors of society. Delays will make the problem more difficult, and more expensive.
The Washington Post points out that the report sees adding "$100 to the costs associated with each ton of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere."
AP has a report on the abuse of Iraqi civilians which is very troubling.
More than 40 percent [of US combat troops] support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians, the Pentagon said Friday in what it called its first ethics study of troops at the war front.
This isn't just about the damage inflicted on Iraqi civilians, in my view. We need to understand that troops returning to civilian life in the US are carrying this with them. It won't go away or be forgotten.
The other day a tired-sounding man in Florida, calling in to an Air America talk show, reminded us not to forget that when voting irregularities (ahem) occurred in Florida, the person responsible for taking action is, of course, the US attorney.
That's just one more thing we need to keep in mind when discussing the importance of what the Justice Department has attempted to do -- and perhaps succeeded in doing -- over the past several years: insuring a right result in national elections. That's right.
Locally, we are watching as officials of Texas cities along the US-Mexico border try to get an audience with his highness. Their purpose: to persuade Bush to think twice before putting a physical wall through their cities as the chosen method of deterring illegal immigration.
These mayors are begging us to recognize that for over three hundred years these cities have been single units physically, culturally, and through family ties with their other half across the bridge or down Main Street. -- Eagle Pass with Piedras Negras, Laredo with Nuevo Laredo, etc. There are signs that the administration may be backing down on the wall.
