Kentucky Bourbon

Kentucky, where it is said that many a Preston reside (which has raised the state's status in my book), is unfortunately ground zero for the impacts of global warming. Bourbon, the pillar of the Kentucky economy (and which enables all those Prestons to go through life living where they do) appears to be highly sensitive to climatic change. What will become of Kentucky (not to mention the majority of American frat boys) when the delicate environmental balance that nourishes America's life blood is upset?

Thanks to Josh for calling my attention to this imminent doom.

In other global warming news, the crew from the Stablisation 2005 conference have released their proceedings via the UK's DEFRA. The upshot from the Executive Summary - if we're interested in preventing "dangerous climate change" (something everyone is really concerned about, but no one seems to know what it is), we should have gotten started sometime during the late 19th century. Though the effort shies away from explicitly committing to a particular climate threshold, it makes it fairly clear that we've already bought some pretty significant headaches.

Finally, kudos to Rick Piltz, whose sharp critique in the Dec. 27th issue of Eos highlighted the shortcomings of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's climate change assessment process. In reference to the CCSP's report series, Piltz stated:

"These prospective reports do not amount to an integrated effort to effectively inform society and policy-makers responsible for dealing with the climate change problem, as was called for in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. In addition, the convoluted bureaucratic process under which these reports are being developed has led to lengthy delays in even the early stages of designing and drafting them."

Right on, man.