Top 10 Global Warming Stories of 2007

What events or actions had the most positive or negative impact on the likelihood that the nation and the world will act in time to avoid catastrophic warming? Here are my picks:

#10. Over a barrel: Oil nearing $100. Technically not a global warming story — but who can doubt that part of the renewed interest in energy policy in general and alternatives/efficiency in particular is due to record oil prices? Certainly OPEC is a bit worried. And if, as many believe, this is evidence that we are nearing peak oil — then this story foreshadows even more dramatic changes in the future.


#9. Australian denier bites the dust — literally: Conservative Prime Minister John Howard of drought-riddled Australia lost perhaps the first national election in which global warming was a pivotal issue. The immediate impact was Australia signing the Kyoto protocol — further isolating this country. But a much bigger impact may be felt if U.S. progressives come to see that fighting global warming is not just the morally right thing to do — it is winning politics.

#8. The climate, it is a changin’: The painful reality of global warming is becoming obvious to more and more people in 2007, as the weather gets more and more extreme. Australians reversed their thinking in large part because of the brutal multi-year drought they are now in (see here and here and here). Then we have the brutal droughts in this country (see here), which are increasingly being linked to global warming. Same for the record-breaking wildfires. The Brits know climate change is behind their record flooding. Same for the Chinese.

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