TIME's survival guide to global warming

Lots o' good stuff therein

Posted by David Roberts at 6:55 AM on 02 Apr 2007

Read more about: climate | environmental movement | messaging | green living

This week's TIME has a big package of stories on global warming. Upping the ante on the de rigueur "10 things you can do," the magazine offers a whopping 51, an odd mix of large structural reforms and consumer tips like drying your clothes on a clothesline.

Coming in at No. 1? Ethanol. Oy. Then again, a carbon tax comes in at No. 5, so all is not lost. Also earning the DR thumbs up: geothermal heat, urban living, cutting down on meat, supporting farmers markets, and just for the weirdness factor, avoiding left turns.

Elsewhere in the issue, you can find:

an extensive summary of current efforts to tackle the problem, containing the usual biofuels > clean coal > green building > corporate greening > political climate changing > what about China and India? > rousing conclusion narrative structure,
a piece by Mark Hertsgaard on adaptation,
a cool interactive graphic of a green home,
a short bit on Ed Begley,
a woefully insufficient blurb on the biofuels vs. food question, and
a bit on tax incentives for going green.

There isn't much here that will be new to regular Grist readers -- except maybe in Hertsgaard's piece, which is the best of the bunch -- but this is just the sort of magisterial, graphically rich overview that ginormo companies like Time-Warner can produce with their ginormo budgets.

Hopefully it will have a transformative effect on Middle America. Or at least raise an eyebrow or two between episodes of American Idol.

For story: TIME's survival guide to global warming
12 Comments | Post a Comment

adaptation; left turns

The beginning of Mark Hertsgaard's article was very interesting. The Japanese photo gave me the creeps, for some reason, though I have been in similarly huge interiors of train stations without feeling that way ... It looked too much like a horror film, somehow.

Anyway, yes, Hertsgaard's nice-and-easy discussion of "adaptation" and "mitigation" reminds me to mention that Grist should have an environmentalist lexicon, or glossary, defining those terms, and many more. That way, we would not have to endure the "cool kids" saying stuff like, "Well, you know what DR says about mitigation, bla bla ... ," without knowing what to shoot back.

On left turns: Yes, they can be Purgatory. And unfortunately, where my parents live, they must make a left turn from their street to most of their destinations; and my father is pretty much a hazard at the wheel. (Stay away from Abington and Jenkintown, PA!) (In fairness, I am no driving star myself; but then again, I do not drive. Thank God!) Presumably the traffic engineers and the fuel-consumption engineers will do the calculations, to figure out how turning left compares to going across and doing a loop-de-loop.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 8:17 AM on 02 Apr 2007

Global Warming Alert: Get Ready Now!

These are the things people need to do to get ready for Global Warming:

(1) Buy more bathing suits. Microbikinis are welcome.

(2) Get in shape -- we'll be wearing lighter clothing like Brazilians -- who wants to look at a 350 lb guy in Bermuda shorts?

(3) Plan on having more money in the bank because of spending less on heating and other energy.

(4) Sell your home. With new land opening up housing prices will continue to plummet.

(5) Buy land in central canada or offshore. When tundra melts and the sea levels fall: buying opportunities!

(6) Plan more vacations: increased warming increases productivity. The 4 day workweek may re-emerge.

(7) Buy some Bombay Sapphire. G&T's always great for a warm winter on the veranda.

by jabailo at 8:28 AM on 02 Apr 2007

is this guy a troll?

I'm pretty new here, so I'm not sure if "jabailo" is a troll but this guy always makes so many almost-making-sense points without, unfortunately, actually making sense. But if this guy is legit, I have some comments. I'll only comment on the ones that I have some clue what he's trying to say.

These are the things people need to do to get ready for Global Warming:

(3) Plan on having more money in the bank because of spending less on heating and other energy.

No, plan on having less money in the bank as you're paying more for the increases flooding damage to your homes, your cars, and indirectly through prices increases in food.

(4) Sell your home. With new land opening up housing prices will continue to plummet.

How will new land open up while sea levels rise? Is there some bizarro world you live in that the rest of us don't?

(5) Buy land in central canada or offshore. When tundra melts and the sea levels fall: buying opportunities!

It seems that permafrost melting is pretty much only decimating communities that are built upon it, forcing many costs infrastructure repairs to the structures themselves, as well as to roadways that access such communities. Once it's all melted, well, that soil isn't very good for farming and there's not lots of other reasons to move to such locales yet.

by Trebuchet at 12:20 PM on 02 Apr 2007

central Canada

Right, nice, but the mosquitoes will be horrible.

As for "trolls": It is up to you to call them as you see them. I know what you are talking about, and I do not find them at all pleasant.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:49 PM on 02 Apr 2007

Corporate Propaganda

LOL, these guys have no idea and are only sock puppets for the psychopathic corporations........

dangerous propaganda... as the world is twirled in BS and the spin-talk twaddles the brains of all
the world's people,... the climate is marching onwards, the sea is getting hotter everyday.... hotter and hotter, inexorably towards the extinction of civilisation and even LIFE itself.

Hey ava nava beer, mate.

omegafour.com if you want to survive.

by Zarkov at 4:44 PM on 02 Apr 2007

Sloppy editing on Time's part

Did Time turn their headline writing over to the Advertising Department? Looking at numero uno, "Turn Food Into Fuel", they actually seem to be urging turning anything BUT food into fuel. Even so, they buy into the myth that

Ethanol is the alternative fuel that could finally wean the U.S. from its expensive oil habit.

Some figures (including cost estimates) to back up that claim, please, Time?

P.S., I was wondering whether Ted Turner was behind the high ranking of ethanol, but I see that last year he left Time Warner Inc.'s Board of Directors.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 7:24 PM on 02 Apr 2007

What kind of order?

So, who decided the order of importance for these 51 things? Green eyeshadow and bamboo fences ahead of switching off lights and computers?

Basically, that article is a total mess - exactly what I'd expect of Time. They're actually seriously suggesting pumping sulphur into the atmosphere? And how about this:

Bamboo makes a beautiful fence, and because it grows so quickly (as much as 1 ft. a day or more, depending on the species), it absorbs more CO2 than, say, a rosebush. Most homeowners have to restrict its growth, lest it get out of control. Do this, however, and you reduce bamboo's capacity as a carbon sink. Only large-scale plantings, which absorb CO2 faster than they release it, can favorably tip the scales. How big is your yard?

So, plant bamboo fences because they absorb CO2, but don't trim them. Well, actually, don't bother building them.

Who comes up with this stuff? At least the other articles seemed sensible enough.

If I share initials with 'Global Warming', is that a sign?

by tico89 at 2:29 PM on 03 Apr 2007

Btw, jabailo...

...I usually desist from making any reference to any of your comments, as obviously you get a kick out of people reacting to your illogicalities. However,

increased warming increases productivity

Says who? I live in a tropical country, and the heat sure doesn't make people here overly productive.

By the way, did you know your username is very similar to the Spanish word for 'wart hog'?

If I share initials with 'Global Warming', is that a sign?

by tico89 at 2:50 PM on 03 Apr 2007

Not trying to insult any Catholics here, but...

...do carbon offsets remind anyone else of confessions? Feeling mildly guilty about having done something 'wrong'? Then, do something that's easy and not a lot of use to anyone, and all will be forgiven.

Just a thought for Easter Week.

If I share initials with 'Global Warming', is that a sign?

by tico89 at 2:55 PM on 03 Apr 2007

Perhaps a better analogy, Tico89

would be indulgences.

These are only my personal opinions.

by Ron Steenblik at 3:34 PM on 03 Apr 2007
[ Parent ]

laughable errors

I read the list of things a person can do to slow global warming...I agreed with some of it, but they really need to do some fact-checking: in the piece about line-drying clothes, they wrote about organic cotton sheared from sheep raised on Whole Foods. Was I the only one who picked up on that? Cotton comes from plants! Wool comes from sheep!

Nature will always win, one way or another. The question is, how will it affect us? Think about it.

by Library Lady at 7:54 PM on 03 Apr 2007

So True LL

>> Nature will always win, one way or another. The question is, how will it affect us? Think about it.>>

yep its in the book, LOL.

omegafour.com

by Zarkov at 10:50 PM on 03 Apr 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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