COP-out

As Churchill might have said: "This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. It is not even the beginning of the beginning."

[thanks to JKH]

More Exxon shenanigans

Hmm...so much for Exxon giving up their funding of sceptic groups. A quick glance at the groups linked from that page shows that they do indeed feature the standard septic nonsense, I found something by Baliunas very quickly (and no, it wasn't about astronomy, where her opinions might possibly be worth something).

This news rather undermines the credibility of the EGU officials who (in the CL division meeting at the recent EGU meeting) repeatedly referred to Exxon's bad behaviour as a purely historical phenomenon and were very adamant that we should not judge Exxon on their record but on their supposed pledge to be more honest in future. I wonder if this news will force a rethink?

Spend for the planet!

You know how that old "reduce, reuse, recycle" slogan of the environmental movement is embarrassingly inconvenient for conventional economic growth?

Well, Japan has recently solved this conundrum with a truly brilliant idea. They have miraculously turned grotesque over-consumption into an environmental act by creating the "eco-point"! Each "Eco-point" is worth about 1¥ (which you can use for yet more consumption), and you get awarded more points for buying larger, more power-hungry appliances. The largest flat-screen plasma TVs, with a power consumption of about 5 times greater than a typical old-style CRT model, get the max 36,000¥-worth of points. Buying larger air-conditioners and refrigerators will save the planet too! Why didn't Al Gore think of it sooner? The "eco-point" greenwash site can be found here, but it seems a bit knackered at the moment.

Coming next: eco-coal, which neutralises its CO2 emissions by prepending the "eco" prefix to ordinary coal.