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After Barack Obama was elected last year, there was hope around the world that the U.S. might finally assume a leadership position in the fight against global warming. But when the Climate Congress convenes in Copehagen next month, delegates from the United States will have nothing.

The fault lies not with Obama, but with a Democratic Congress that couldn't pass climate legislation in time to demonstrate that the United States is taking the threat seriously and is ready to be a global leader on this most pressing of issues.

Or so we'll argue in an editorial we're writing for Monday.

We're writing an editorial for Wednesday about potential Wild and Scenic River designation for 19 miles of the New River from Glen Lyn into West Virginia.  The National Park Service studied the idea for nearly 20 years and finally issued a 194-page report that found evidence to support hte designation but ultimately recommended against it.  Public comment on the recommendation runs through Friday. (Leave comments on the NPS site.)

In our editorial, we will recommend Congress and President Obama move forward with the designation. This glorious stretch of natural beauty deserves protection. Opposition primarily is coming from West Virginia where some residents and local governments want to keep the option to develop along the river.

Our editorial will also urge the Giles County Board of Supervisors to approve a resolution on Wednesday supporting the designation.

We're writing an editorial for Wednesday about national investment in a "smart" power grid. President Obama today announced $3.4 billion will go toward projects around the country that will save money and energy over the long-haul. The work has industry support, too.  The private sector will invest billions more.

Virginia Tech is receiving a slice of the recovery act support for smart grids. The school will receive a $1.25 million grant to build a smart Grid Information Clearinghouse Web portal that encourages use of electricity in an environmentally responsible way.

Good news all around.

Two interesting stories today on the climate change front.

The first delivers a deserved smack down to the the deniers who have lately insisted that the world is cooling, not warming.  The Associated Press had several statisticians study the data.  They didn't tell them what the numbers were, just gave them the raw numbers. And guess what?  The only way to find a cooling trend is to gimmick the numbers. All of the statisticians agreed the data reveal an increase in global temperature over time.

The AP sent expert statisticians NOAA's year-to-year ground temperature changes over 130 years and the 30 years of satellite-measured temperatures preferred by skeptics and gathered by scientists at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Statisticians who analyzed the data found a distinct decades-long upward trend in the numbers, but could not find a significant drop in the past 10 years in either data set. The ups and downs during the last decade repeat random variability in data as far back as 1880.

Saying there's a downward trend since 1998 is not scientifically legitimate, said David Peterson, a retired Duke University statistics professor and one of those analyzing the numbers.

Identifying a downward trend is a case of "people coming at the data with preconceived notions," said Peterson, author of the book "Why Did They Do That? An Introduction to Forensic Decision Analysis."

I doubt this will change many hard-core deniers' views.  For them, it is easier to pretend the world conforms to their beliefs than to actually confront the science and make the tough choices.

For those of us with a reality-based view of reality, what to do?  Well that brings us to story No. 2. (Hat tip to Slashdot on this one.)

Two researchers in New Zealand studied the effects of household pets on the environment.  Based on how much energy and land it takes to feed them and other factors, they conclude a large dog is responsible for as much carbon emissions as an SUV each year.  Cats are less, around as much as a Volkswagen Golf.  Two hamsters come in around a plasma TV and a goldfish contributes to global warming about as much as two cell phones.

The researchers conclusion: Get rid of your dogs and cats in favor of edible animals like chickens and pigs. Their forthcoming book no doubt has more details. It's called Time to "Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living."

I don't see that one happening.

The harm is greater than the good

Rick Webb

Webb is a senior scientist with the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and manager of the Virginia Wind Web site: www.VaWind.org.

It was only a few years ago that habitat loss was front and center among causes for concern about the future well-being of the American ecological landscape. Not much has changed to allay this concern; sprawling development continues, and the alteration and loss of natural habitat is largely unchecked. What has changed is the focus of many mainstream environmental organizations. Concerns about the projected future effects of climate change have taken precedence over the immediate and observable effects of habitat loss. Some who label themselves environmentalists would now allow and even advocate industrial-scale renewable energy development in our remaining wild areas, including national forests and other lands set aside for permanent preservation.

Read more.

The Government Accountability Office this week released a report on how governments are (and more commonly are not) preparing for climate change. It paints a grim picture as most local and state governments plus Washington have not given this impending crisis due consideration in their policy making. From the report:

According to a recent report by the National Research Council (NRC), however, individuals and institutions whose futures will be affected by climate change are unprepared both conceptually and practically for meeting the challenges and opportunities it presents. Many usual practices and decision rules (for building bridges, implementing zoning rules, using private motor vehicles, and so on) assume a stationary climate-a continuation of past climate conditions, including similar patterns of variation and the same probabilities of extreme events. According to NRC, that assumption, fundamental to the ways people and organizations make their choices, is no longer valid.

Adapting to climate change requires making policy and management decisions that cut across traditional economic sectors, agencies, jurisdictional boundaries, and levels of government. The authorities and expertise necessary to facilitate adaptation activities are spread among many agencies.

The report goes on to explore where additional research is needed and what communities probably should be doing now.  It takes a look at three places in particular that are already adopting policies to be ready for changing climate, rising sea levels and more severe weather. Included was Maryland, where rising sea levels are a particular concern, just as they should be in Virginia.

Overall, it's a sobering report worth your attention. Check out the one-page highlights, the full 86-page report and testimony presenting it to Congress.  (All of those are pdfs)

I really don't know what to make of this, other  than it is entertaining political theater: As part of a stunt put on by The Yes Men - a group I've never heard of, but maybe should have - someone claiming to represent the U.S. Chamber of Commerce held a press conference announcing the Chamber had reversed its position on climate change and was getting behind strong legislation to limit carbon emissions.

It got really interesting when a real Chamber of Commerce representative crashed the party.

Tuesday, Old Dominion University's Regional Studies Institute issued its 10th annual State of the Region report for Hampton Roads. We're working on an editorial to run later on one of the issues addressed, the impact of global warming and climate change on the coastal metropolitan area. While the study's authors acknowledge the continuing dispute over the causes of global warming, they leave little room for doubt that it is occurring and causing sea levels to rise, to potentially devastating effect. The report urges a regional reduction in carbon emissions and a statewide increase in fuel taxes, to curb vehicle emissions, and it recommends Hampton Roads start planning "a system of dikes and levees unless we intend to forfeit huge portions of our land to the sea." That's a warning state and national policymakers should heed.

Wednesday, we'll laud Virginia Tech for its management of an international resource management project that won a Nobel for one of its researchers, and applaud the university's success in winning a multimillion-dollar federal grant for the university's bioinformatics institute. Both are pointed reminders of the important role research has to play in the lives of ordinary people, and the wisdom of investing in it.

Green power isn't enough

Manley C. Butler Jr.

Butler, is the president of Butler Parachute Systems Group Inc. in Roanoke.

The op-ed "Time to end our reliance on coal" (Sept. 8), implies by omission that wind and solar-power do not receive government subsidies even as most other types of electric power generation do. Nothing could be further from the truth as can be illustrated right here in our own backyard by the tax subsidies to be provided to the Allegheny Highlands Wind Power Project.

Read more.