The irreconcilable differences between David S. Reay's Book Review of The Hot Topic (Nature 452, 31; 2008) and mine, expressed in Nature Reports Climate Change (see http://www.nature.com/climate/2008/0804/full/climate.2008.23.html), go to the heart of why there is now a crisis in climate policy. Reay seems to believe that agreement with a normative agenda precludes the need for rigorous evaluation of evidence or of proposed policy actions, and so falls into the same traps as Gabrielle Walker and David King, the authors whom he praises. (Correspondence)

Low- and zero-energy buildings could have a huge impact on energy use and carbon emissions. We have the technologies, but if they are to mitigate climate change, green-building design must hit the mass market : a report.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that President George W. Bush had personally intervened to weaken new regulations to control smog just as they were about to be announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In response, advocates of tighter standards predictably charged that the president had overturned a scientific judgement. Carol Browner, who headed the EPA under President Bill Clinton, put the matter starkly, telling the Post that the Clean Air Act creates "a moral and ethical commitment that we're going to let the science tell us what to do'.

The budding carbon-offsets market could already be on its last legs, industry representatives say, if the latest European proposals are agreed. European negotiators went into a United Nations climate meeting in Bangkok this week warning developing countries that they need to step up to the challenge of climate change if they are to see additional money flowing into clean-development projects.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has grossly underestimated the challenges of reducing and stabilizing greenhousegas emissions, according to an influential group of climate-policy experts.

How much energy, and of what sort, should we expect the world to be generating in the decades to come? This is a question of crucial importance to economics, development and the management of climate change. (Editorial)

Renewable energy will contribute 10% of China's energy consumption by 2010, forecasts the country's latest 5-year plan.

As many amphibians face the very real threat of being completely wiped out by disease, climate change and pollution, Emma Marris looks at a controversial approach to save some of them in glass boxes.

Arthur C. Clarke's technological prescience deserves to be honoured; his endless optimism needs to be cherished. (Editorial)

Original Source

In parts of the world already facing unreliable food supplies, an uncertain climate adds to the future stress for soils, plants and people. March 20, 2008