No wonder why Canada won't meet their Kyoto targets A University of Alberta researcher is calling on Canadian beer drinkers to go green and toss their energy-guzzling beer fridges, found in one of three households across the country.
posted on Dec 1, 2007 - View this thread

Quicktime panoramas of Kyoto
posted on Jun 30, 2007 - View this thread

The familiar story of 20th century philosophy is one of analytic versus continental philosophies. In spite of this, behind the exaggerated differences is the common history that these two traditions often forget. In failing to remember this common history, it's easy to forget that for all its supposed universality, philosophy is so distinctly western. It's naive to think that this narrow-mindedness is due to western intellectuals being unable to hear the wisdoms of the world over the din of their own arguments. Rather, it is only that these wordly traditions don’t have that flavour – that hardness of crystal. [more inside]
posted on Apr 20, 2007 - View this thread

Climate change a 'questionable truth'. Margaret Wente looks beyond the hysteria surrounding the climate change debate. Hysteria her own newspaper has been contributing to.
posted on Jan 31, 2007 - View this thread

Global warming skeptic Ronald Bailey--Reason's science correspondent, adjunct scholar at CATO and CEI, and editor of the 2002 book Global Warming and Other Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death--has changed his mind.
posted on Jan 16, 2007 - View this thread

Geiko of Kyoto is a stunning photo gallery of Kyotos's Geisha - both the mature Geiko and the apprentice Maiko. Melissa Chasse annotates many photos with fascinating details and offers an account of her tea party with Mamechika, a lovely Maiko. For more, this lovely Geisha site offers a brief history from the era of the floating world, more photos, Ukiyo-e art, and links. Also see y2karls' prior definitive post on ukiyo-e.
posted on Sep 23, 2006 - View this thread

The Toronto Globe and Mail on climate-change denial in Canada. Includes a description of how donations from oil companies to anti-Kyoto groups like Friends of Science are laundered through the Calgary Foundation and the University of Calgary's Science Education Fund. Previously.
posted on Aug 15, 2006 - View this thread

Grasses and other green growth may produce 10 to 30 percent of Earth's annual methane output. German researcher Frank Keppler reports in Nature [reg req] that living plants give off between 60 and 240 million tonnes of methane per year, which may mean that the use of carbon sinks to offset CO2 emissions may need to be rethought. [Also: audio on NPR ]
posted on Jan 13, 2006 - View this thread

The jolly green Hummer? The growing band of environmental offset companies which give you the chance to offload your SUV driving, energy squandering guilt onto an annual subscription and a fancy bumper sticker looks like one way that we'll be able to live with ourselves in the power hungry 21st century. Is this the placebo we've all been waiting for?
posted on Jan 13, 2006 - View this thread

It's official. 2005 was the hottest year on record. Despite this new alarming evidence that the world is heating up, countries like Australia and the United States are still refusing to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol. But with many (mostly on the conservative side of politics) claiming that the Kyoto Protocol is a failure, what else can be done to stop the now clearly visible effects of climate change to our world?
posted on Jan 3, 2006 - View this thread

Global warming -- the upside: the entrepreneurs poised to make millions from new ports and shipping lanes in the formerly ice-bound Arctic circle. A fascinating New York Times article on the international land-grab following the news (reported here, discussed here, whitewashed here, et. al.) that the polar ice caps and Siberian permafrost are melting. Goodbye Gulf Stream, hello Club Med Santa-style -- first SUV to the North Pole wins!
posted on Oct 10, 2005 - View this thread

A White House aide with no scientific training edited government reports to weaken the language linking greenhouse gases with climate change. Example of editing here. This comes on the heels of news that ExxonMobil was instrumental in the Bush administration's decision to reject the Kyoto Treaty.
posted on Jun 8, 2005 - View this thread

“We bit off more than we could chew." When thirty-five Greenpeace protestors raided London's International Petroleum Exchange to mark the first day of the Kyoto protocol coming into effect, the last thing they expected was a lesson in the finer points of beatdown administration at the hands of drunken oil traders.

"[One protestor] said: 'I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot.” Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: 'Sod off, Swampy.'"
posted on Feb 17, 2005 - View this thread

climateprediction.net is the largest experiment ever to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century. it's a collaborative project a la seti@home, and they have come up with some interesting results. we've heard about climate change before, but this study indicates that things might be significantly worse than initially thought (double the temperature increase as previously predicted). maybe this is all okay though, even good for you. if you'd like to see that idea nicely debunked, i suggest you check out trust us, we're experts. a lovely little book about how much we can trust all of these studies. makes you wonder if we should have signed this.
posted on Jan 26, 2005 - View this thread

The world's weather is going haywire. So says the World Meteorological Organisation. "The unstable world of climate change has long been a prediction. Now, the WMO says, it is a reality." Where is the Kyoto Protocol when you need it?
posted on Jul 3, 2003 - View this thread

A Year in the Life of a Kyoto Neighbourhood. Actually, more like about six months, but still a worthwhile project.
Related :- the Play of Light, Kyoto and Nepal at night.
Also :- seasons in the Natural History Museum garden, London.
posted on Jul 1, 2003 - View this thread

"It is with pleasure that I welcome you to the Website of the Kyoto National Museum. We hope this site will open up the fascinating world of East Asian art to a broader audience than ever before possible." [1]
posted on Feb 26, 2003 - View this thread

Canadian Paliament ratifies the Kyoto Accord. Someone on this continent had to do it.
posted on Dec 10, 2002 - View this thread

Quitting Kyoto Though I too was angry when Bush end gang refused to get involved with Kyoto (environmental treaty), I might have let my ant-Bush feelings take over my "better self." Here an expert argues that all the world but the EU knows that the Kyoto treaty is worthless.
posted on Oct 1, 2002 - View this thread

Canadian Prime Minister surprises with pledge to put Kyoto accord to Parliament. Until now, with resistance from the oil-rich western provinces, Canada has been luke-warm on Kyoto. PM Jean Chretien surprised all of us (a pleasant surprise, for many) by making the announcement today at the Summit in South Africa. The PM recently announced that he'll be leaving office in 18 months - leaving him with a lot of power and little accountability - possibly working on his own legacy rather than for the good of his country. So far so good.
posted on Sep 2, 2002 - View this thread

Entire EU signs on to Kyoto Enviro Pact All 15 European Union nations ratified the Kyoto Protocol against global warming yesterday and goaded Washington, which has turned its back on the treaty, to do its part. The pact would have required the United States, which accounted for 36 percent of the industrialized world's greenhouse gas emissions in 1990, to trim emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels.
posted on Jun 1, 2002 - View this thread

Pacific Island States To Sue Western Countries Over Rising Sea Levels
    At the meeting of Pacific Conference of Leaders' Standing Committee at the East West Center in Honolulu, members discussed the use of lawsuits to draw attention to the risks which climate change pose their countries, and to pressure the US and Australia to sign Kyoto. (1)
    The conference nearly coincided with a report by the AU National Tidal facility which reported sinking sea levels in Tuvalu. (1, 2, 3) This story is particularly interesting (1) on human impact on Tuvalu.
    Heading into another major El Nino year, there is no doubt that Pacific states are vulnerable, but how should they argue for recognition of climatic inequalities?
posted on Mar 29, 2002 - View this thread

Alberta will face a disastrous competitive and economic disadvantage if Canada signs the Kyoto accord. Meanwhile, this year has been one of the worst for smog in Toronto. Some municipalities in Ontario are voluntarily looking towards alternate energy sources because they feel, in the long run the costs will be lower (lower health costs, avoiding higher fossil fuel costs, etc. - sorry, no link) What do you think? Is it possible to have economically viable alternative energy, and is the US setting a bad example for countries that feel they need to compete?
posted on Jul 24, 2001 - View this thread

The world has agreed on a watered-down version of Kyoto. One populous country has declined to have anything to do with it, though. Can you guess which it is?
posted on Jul 23, 2001 - View this thread

China pops back a collective Beano. (NY Times link. Free registration required.) One of Bush's main objections to the Kyoto protocol is China's exemption from regulation, but it seems they're doing their collective best to cut down on CO2 emissions, with success. Even with China's rapid rate of expansion, this weakens our administration's argument a bit by setting forward the number of years it will take China to match our own emissions. At what point do we start to play nice with the other kids?
posted on Jun 16, 2001 - View this thread

Let the American Boycott of CO2-Denying Corporations Begin Great Op-Ed Piece in the NYTimes by T. Friedman: Using the Market to Defeat Republican's Kyoto Dismissal: Mega-dittos Rush!
posted on Jun 1, 2001 - View this thread

Kyoto: Where's that? Tut tut. That man's sure got a cactus up his ass.
posted on Mar 29, 2001 - View this thread

WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, COULD YOU REPEAL THE GENEVA CONVENTION? Bush's EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said yesterday that the Kyoto treaty on climate change was dead. She said, "No, we have no interest in implementing that treaty." Under the treaty, the U.S. would have to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Earlier this month, Whitman signed a formal declaration with environmental ministers from other industrialized nations pledging to move forward on the treaty.
posted on Mar 28, 2001 - View this thread

Most of the world rejects the USAmerican attempt to end-around-run the Kyoto protocols. Surely we'll get our way (I use the pronouns reluctantly in this case). Who can stop us? Besides, who cares? Not President-elect (de facto) Bush. Add the guiltless bloodshed in Israel/Palestine to this and my last post and it's hard to be thankful at the global level.
posted on Nov 22, 2000 - View this thread