Yesterday, The New York Times published an editorial about coal-to-liquid technology. Their warning against so-called energy solutions that actually worsen climate change is right on target.

For more, check out a post I wrote last month, about why coal-to-liquid technology is a bad idea.

If you're concerned about hurricanes and global warming and you've been reading the newspapers and magazines, you are probably confused.

Perhaps in an effort to be "balanced," most stories in the media these days present a muddled picture. Cornelia Dean's piece in the New York Times is a good case in point: a scientific paper is cited claiming a connection; another is cited claiming the opposite. The implication is that the science is inconclusive.

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If you're an avid follower of the news, you may have heard of a company called Planktos that's trying to fight global warming and make a profit at the same time through a process called "ocean fertilization".

The concept is simple: phytoplankton (tiny one-celled algae) take up carbon dioxide (CO₂) during photosynthesis. Fertilizing the ocean encourages growth of phytoplankton, and increases the rate at which CO₂ is consumed - presumably leading to less CO₂ in the atmosphere. Since ocean photosynthesis is often limited by lack of iron, the idea is to dump iron into the ocean and watch the phytoplankton bloom. Planktos sees this as an economic opportunity: Increase CO₂ uptake in the ocean, and sell it as an offset to carbon emitters. (I talked more about how offsets work in a previous post on land-based offsets.)

Ocean fertilization may sound like a good idea, but it has some very serious problems. Here's why.

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In scanning the climate news each week, I come upon interesting items I'd like to share. This week I found some alarming new studies about carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels in the atmosphere and ocean.

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Yesterday, President Bush stated that carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 2006 declined 1.3 percent, "putting us well ahead of what is needed annually to meet my greenhouse gas intensity reduction goal of 18% by 2012." There are two problems with what he said:

1. The so-called "decline" is most likely a short-term dip in an upward trend.
2. The President's goal is insufficient to halt global warming.

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Our guest blogger, Sheryl Canter, is an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

If you have a garden, you know the climate is warming. In temperate zones, the last frost in spring comes earlier, and the first frost in fall comes later. The longer growing season may allow you to grow vegetables you never could grow before. But you also may have noticed your weeds are more aggressive, insect pests are more of a problem, and pollen plagues you all summer long. You're not imagining things!

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In 2005, California petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for permission to establish its own, stricter tailpipe emissions standards. Nearly two years have passed, and EPA still has not ruled on the request - despite a recent Supreme Court ruling that EPA has the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.

Today, Environmental Defense and NRDC sent a letter to EPA warning that they will join California to in a lawsuit to compel "EPA's unreasonably delayed and unlawfully withheld final action on California's waiver request" if the agency does not make a decision within 180 days.

In large cities such as New York, buildings account for most of the greenhouse gas emissions. The William J. Clinton Foundation has developed a plan to reduce energy usage in buildings, and organized an international coalition of banks and 16 of the world's largest cities to implement it. Billions of dollars have been pledged to address the problem. For details, read the story in the International Herald Tribune.

Today's Guest Blogger, Lisa Moore, is a scientist in the Climate and Air Program.

The fiery centers of volcanoes burn carbon-containing rocks from deep within the earth, and thus emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂). There are a fair number of volcanoes in this world, all emitting CO₂, so couldn't this be the cause of global warming?

In a word, no. Here's how scientists know that climate change is not from volcanic activity.

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In browsing around the internet this week I found some sites with good information about global warming:

Reporting on Climate Change: Understanding the Science - A 100-page book, free to download or $30 in print form, that does an excellent job summarizing the science behind climate change.

Celsias (Blog) - Great background essays on climate science, also some very funny posts.

Woods Hole Research Center - Excellent resource with background articles, links for further reading, and more.

MarketWatch Special Report: An Investor Guide to Global Warming - A five-part series that ran each day this week covering everything from green investments to the role of insurers.

Do you have favorite sites for information on climate change? Post the links!