MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'greenhouse'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:43:52 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734053&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FaZoSG5ocmyE%2F By Walter OlsonYesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, the massive greenhouse-gas suit. Like the other “big” global warming/climate change suits, this one suffers from a basic and incurable defect: it seeks to undermine the separation of powers established under the U.S. Constitution by inviting the courts to address “political questions” of a sort properly resolved by other branches of government. As Cato’s amicus brief by Ilya Shapiro and Evan Turgeon explained in the case of Comer v. Murphy Oil: “[W]hile it executes firmly all the judicial powers intrusted to it, the court will carefully abstain from exercising any power that is not strictly judicial in its character, and which is not clearly confi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734053 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:35:14 +0100 4734053 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4704627&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F37Y-u-NanmY%2F By Gene HealyThat’s the topic of my Washington Examiner column this week. In it, I discuss last week’s budget battle and the failure of “policy riders” designed to rein in the Obama EPA’s attempts to regulate greenhouse gases without a congressional vote specifically authorizing it. The Obama team believes it has the authority to implement comprehensive climate change regulation, Congress be damned. Worse still, under current constitutional law–which has little to do with the actual Constitution–they’re probably right. Thanks to overbroad congressional delegation, “the Imperial Presidency Comes in Green, Too.” At home and abroad, the legislative branch sits on the sidelines as the executive state makes the law and wages war, despi... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4704627 Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:59:32 +0100 4704627 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4664220&cid=t_233460_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Ffive-more-science-stories.html Sperm condensation – Protamines are small basic proteins that condense the genetic material, the DNA, in mature sperm helping to form the head of the sperm. They are rich in the amino acid arginine whose residues are distributed in a number of stretches separated by neutral amino acids. The amino acid accounts for between 60 and 80 percent of the protamine. Now, a team in Spain has used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to investigate, for the first time, the secondary structure of protamines in sperm nuclei. The Forgotten Greenhouse Gas – In a carbocentric political environment, dinitrogen monoxide, is almost the forgotten greenhouse gas. Enormous volumes are released into the atmosphere naturally from soils and the oceans. This accounts for about two-thirds of the atmos... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4664220 Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:00:05 +0100 4664220 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4570522&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FPc_OKJPdstk%2F By Patrick J. MichaelsThe Current Wisdom is a series of monthly posts in which Senior Fellow Patrick J. Michaels reviews interesting items on global warming in the scientific literature that may not have received the media attention that they deserved, or have been misinterpreted in the popular press. The Current Wisdom only comments on science appearing in the refereed, peer-reviewed literature, or that has been peer-screened prior to presentation at a scientific congress. **********  The recent publication of two articles in Nature magazine proclaiming a link to rainfall extremes (and flooding) to global warming, added to the heat in Russia and the floods in Pakistan in the summer of 2010, and the back-to-back cold and snowy winters in the eastern U.S. and western Europe, have gotten a ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4570522 Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:26:05 +0100 4570522 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482815&cid=t_233460_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fheptastic-science-news.html The full list: The Twitter 100 – Its 200 million users share 110 million messages a day – and if you don't know who rules the twittersphere, you don't understand the 21st-century world. This guide is a definitive who's who of the UK's tweet elite. Although for some reason they included me on the list (at #47, same as Armando Ianucci). Why haven’t we cured cancer yet? – How many times have you been asked this question, how many times have you asked this question yourself? The answer boils down to the fact that cancer is not a single disease, it's hundreds of different diseases. Asking that question is like asking, "why haven't we cured viral infection?" or "why haven't we cured car accidents?". Even if we can cur... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482815 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:00:17 +0100 4482815 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4445781&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4cufxDvt22I%2F By Patrick J. MichaelsThe Current Wisdom is a series of monthly posts in which Senior Fellow Patrick J. Michaels reviews interesting items on global warming in the scientific literature that may not have received the media attention that they deserved, or have been misinterpreted in the popular press. The Current Wisdom only comments on science appearing in the refereed, peer-reviewed literature, or that has been peer-screened prior to presentation at a scientific congress. *********** It seems like everyone, from exalted climate scientists to late-night amateur tweeters, can get a bit over-excited about short-term fluctuations, reading into them deep cosmic and political meaning, when they are likely the statistical hiccups of our mathematically surly atmosphere. There’s been some major... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4445781 Mon, 07 Feb 2011 19:28:32 +0100 4445781 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4151747&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FgKhRO7iRgbM%2F By Patrick J. MichaelsNovember’s Scientific American features a profile of Georgia Tech atmospheric scientist Judith Curry,  who has committed the mortal sin of  reaching out to other scientists who hypothesize that global warming isn’t the disaster it’s been cracked up to be.  I have personal experience with this, as she invited me to give a research seminar in Tech’s prestigious School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in 2008.  My lecture summarizing the reasons for doubting the apocalyptic synthesis of climate change was well-received by an overflow crowd. Written by Michael Lemonick, who hails from the shrill blog Climate Central, the article isn’t devoid of the usual swipes, calling her a “heretic,, which is hardly at all true.  She’s simply another hardworking sci... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4151747 Wed, 10 Nov 2010 17:48:35 +0100 4151747 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3848852&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Feco-friendly-living-your-email-attachments-are-hurting-the-environment%2F photo: Thinkstock We’ve all cut down on printing unnecessary documents in order to save trees and energy. But according to Mother Jones, attaching 4.7 megabytes worth of information to an email creates as much greenhouse gas as boiling a tea kettle 17.5 times. That’s only four photos from a digital camera. But…it’s not real paper — how is this possible? The environmental impact comes from redundancy. When you send four photos to 20 people, that’s a lot of duplicate data that’s created. And that data requires equipment to be downloaded. For every 20 people you send the same files to, that’s 20 copies of the files and 20 devices being run to support the data. Try sending your friends and family a link to your Flickr or Facebook account to view imag... Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3848852 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:20:21 +0100 3848852 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3816371&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36050&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblisstree.com%2Flive%2Fget-married-plant-5-trees-indonesian-law-helps-the-environment%2F Wedding traditions can include the sentimental, silly, pricey, cheap, or tacky (or any combination of those adjectives), but very rarely are Western weddings good for the environment. That’s why we’d like to adopt a new marriage custom from Indonesia. Well, not a custom exactly – more like a law. The “Couples Caring for the Environment” program requires newlyweds in the West Java province to plant and care for five trees. The groom typically gives the trees to the bride as a dowry. Indonesia’s green spaces have been destroyed to make room for agriculture, and this program is an effort to restore that greenery. We’d like to add this to U.S. wedding customs — should the government (or wedding planners) create eco-conscious programs like this one from I... Breastfeeding 1-2-3 blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3816371 Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:11:11 +0100 3816371 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287721&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FNzFTrqOzcBA%2F By Jerry TaylorA good default proposition regarding the government’s role in the economy would state that the government should not loan money to an enterprise if the enterprise in question cannot find one single market actor anywhere in the universe to loan said enterprise a single red cent.  It might suggest – I don’t know – that the investment is rather … dubious. Alas, like all good propositions regarding the government’s role in the economy, this one is being left by the roadside by the Obama administration.  Unfortunately, the only complaint being made by a not insubstantial segment of the political Right – frequently, the political crowd that is busy decrying “Bailout Nation” – is that the loan guarantees are not fat enough. I write, of course, about the $8.3 b... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287721 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:17:49 +0100 3287721 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3104990&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FFC4-rdlcDkw%2F By Patrick J. MichaelsLate Friday afternoon, the White house announced a “meaningful agreement” at the Copenhagen climate summit.  Details are currently unavailable, but a White House official said that developed and developing countries have agreed to list their national actions and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a “target” of a two degree (Celsius) limit to any further global warming. In other words, there are no specific emissions reductions targets and timetables.  A country may choose no national reductions, or maybe a national program and that would be their “list.” And just what carbon dioxide level will stop warming over two degrees? No one knows, at least until computer models stop forecasting warming that isn’t happ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3104990 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:40:35 +0100 3104990 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2908570&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FGhLITcCmrOs%2F The New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit, the federal court of appeals where I once clerked, has allowed a class action lawsuit by Hurricane Katrina victims to proceed against a motley crew of energy, oil, and chemical companies.  Their claim: that the defendants’ greenhouse gas emissions raised air and water temperatures on the Gulf Coast, contributing to Katrina’s strength and causing property damage.  Mass tort litigation specialist Russell Jackson calls the plaintiffs’ claims “the litigator’s equivalent to the game ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.’” In Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, the plaintiffs assert a variety of theories under Mississippi common law, but the main issue at this stage was whether the plaintiffs had standing, or whether they coul... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2908570 Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:20:08 +0100 2908570 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2657586&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F4Pc9P-lMicE%2F Conor Clarke at The Atlantic blog, raised several issues with my study, “What to Do About Climate Change,” which Cato published last year. One of Conor Clarke’s comments was that my analysis did not extend beyond the 21st century. He found this problematic because, as Conor put it, climate change would extend beyond 2100, and even if GDP is higher in 2100 with unfettered global warming than without, it’s not obvious that this GDP would continue to be higher “in the year 2200 or 2300 or 3758”. I addressed this portion of his argument in Part I of my response. Here I will address the second part of this argument, that “the possibility of ‘catastrophic’ climate change events — those with low probability but extremely high cost — becomes real after 2100.” The examples o... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2657586 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:53:05 +0100 2657586 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2645270&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F-vxbZIHgdMU%2F Following the dubious example set recently by U.S. legislators, French politicians have informally proposed slapping punitive tariffs on goods from countries who refuse to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The German State Secretary for the Environment has, quite rightly, called foul: There are two problems — the WTO (World Trade Organization), and the signal would be that this is a new form of eco-imperialism,” Machnig said.  ”We are closing our markets for their products, and I don’t think this is a very helpful signal for the international negotiations.” I have a paper forthcoming on the carbon tariff issue, but in the meantime here’s a recent op-ed (written jointly with Pat Michaels) on climate change policy mis-steps. (Source: Cato-at-liberty) Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2645270 Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:00:43 +0100 2645270 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570389&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fs6wm_1PpbeU%2F Some naive people might have been convinced that the U.S. House voted to wreck the American economy by endorsing cap and trade because it was the only way to save the world.  But even many environmentalists had given up on the bill approved last Friday.  It is truly a monstrosity:  it would cost consumers plenty, while doing little to reduce global temperatures. But the legislation had something far more important for legislators and special interests alike.  It was a pork-fest that wouldn’t quit. Reports the New York Times: As the most ambitious energy and climate-change legislation ever introduced in Congress made its way to a floor vote last Friday, it grew fat with compromises, carve-outs, concessions and out-and-out gifts intended to win the votes of wavering lawmakers a... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570389 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:47:04 +0100 2570389 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2511163&cid=t_233460_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F06%2F17%2Fplant-a-tree-in-the-name-of-mental-health%2F Midweek Mental Greening June 18, 2009 (tomorrow!) is the deadline to do just that, if you’re one of the more than 1,000 Croydon residents who receive services from the South London and Maudsley National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (SLAM) who received a patient satisfaction survey to complete. As part of an effort to encourage patients to complete anonymous patient satisfaction surveys regarding the care they receive from SLAM, the NHS has promised to plant a tree for each completed and returned survey. SLAM Medical Director Dr. Martin Baggaley says this extra incentive is two-fold: It will encourage patients to share what they like and dislike about SLAM services and help end the shortage of trees in London: “Taking part in the survey is good both for the local envi... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2511163 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:01:44 +0100 2511163 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2464100&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FeHk3_GJW6JM%2F The U.K.-based Guardian reports that the United Nations and other international bureaucracies dealing with so-called climate change are scheming to impose global taxes. That’s not too surprising, but it is discouraging to read that the Obama Administration appears to be acquiescing to these attacks on U.S. fiscal sovereignty. The Administration also has indicated it wants to squander an additional $400 billion on foreign aid, adding injury to injury: …rich countries will be asked to accept a compulsory levy on international flight tickets and shipping fuel to raise billions of dollars to help the world’s poorest countries adapt to combat climate change. The suggestions come at the start of the second week in the latest round of UN climate talks in Bonn, where 192 countrie... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2464100 Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:45:06 +0100 2464100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2424022&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJfYN8jH9l5A%2F If you like driving a big car or SUV, the good news about Obama’s new fuel-economy standards is that they won’t dictate what kind of car you will be able to buy in the future. If you want to buy a 15-mpg SUV, Detroit (or Aichi or Wolfsburg) will be free to make and sell you one. The bad news is that the standards may make your car more expensive. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards are actually calculated as the mean of gallons per mile, not miles per gallon. So, as of 2016, for every 15-mpg model made by an auto maker, that company will have to make five models of cars that can go 50 mpg in order for its fleet to meet Obama’s new target. Since bringing each new model to market can cost billions of dollars, if there are not enough people who want to buy those ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2424022 Wed, 20 May 2009 13:04:12 +0100 2424022 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2306727&cid=t_233460_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FE8F9LmYINnI%2F Our friends at www.realclimate.org and www.ryanavent.com have been taking shots at the statements in our ad, so I’d like to offer a little commentary. We make three factual assertions. First, we say that “surface temperature changes over the past century have been episodic and modest”. We cite Brohan et al., Journal of Geophysical Research (2006 and updates) and Swanson and Tsonis, Geophysical Research Letters, 2009. The first is the latest update of the East Anglia temperature history, which long has been the IPCC staple. It is the one most cited over the years by the IPCC because it was the first long history that contained much more than simply World Weather Records data updated with local records at the end of a month. At any rate, both it and other global histories i... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2306727 Sun, 05 Apr 2009 22:04:00 +0100 2306727 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2257886&cid=t_233460_107_f&fid=36672&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencebase.com%2Fscience-blog%2Fconverting-carbon-dioxide.html “Nothing beats finding vast lakes of oil for the pumping, or vast deposits of coal for the digging; thanks mother nature!” proclaimed Craig Grimes of Penn State University in an emailed response to my skeptical question regarding his work on catalysts that can convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into a fuel, methane. I report on his fascinating work in the March issue of Intute Spotlight. The process involves using solar power to chemically reduce carbon dioxide back to a combustible hydrocarbon. Grimes suggests that a flow system employed on fossil fuel burning power station chimney stacks could scrub out the carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere and provide us with a viable additional energy source. Playing devil’s advocate, my skepticism was regarding th... Sciencebase Science Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2257886 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:00:06 +0100 2257886