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...1970s - that's a common trope for climate contrarians, who say that if concerns over cooling turned out to be false, maybe the same thing will come of the current worries over global warming. They go on to question the accuracy of today's climate models, and by extension, whether we should really be concerned about potentially catastrophic temperature increases over the coming century. They further point out that plants may indeed thrive in a future with higher carbon dioxide levels - after all, greenhouses pump in extra CO2 to encourage growth - but they fail to note that hotter summers...
That wouldn't be a bad idea, except, as many environmentalists and climatologists are quick to point out, we don't know what the potential side effects of geoengineering might be or whether the entire operation would backfire badly. Geoengineering might be a cheaper option, but followed out to at least one logical conclusion, it could be a pitfall. Say we try to use Myhrvold's giant-garden-hose scheme (after hopefully giving it a better name) without reducing carbon emissions. We could end up in a situation in which we can't abandon geoengineering without risking sudden, disastrous warming...
...There's also the psychological impact of living under constant stress, worrying about whether family members will be stopped by security forces. For a visitor to Kashmir, the number of checkpoints and bunkers, all manned by soldiers carrying AK-47s and sometimes just feet apart, is hard to ignore. But more unsettling are the curfews, called during major protests, elections or any time authorities see fit. They are unpredictable, and breaking curfew can mean arrest. So Srinagar tends to empty out after dark; some shopkeepers who used to keep late hours have simply given up, pulling down shutters before...
...seemingly forever, Pakistan has been a state failing in myriad ways. Yet even by its ever treacherous standards, what has occurred over a very bloody recent week is depressing. Bombs in bazaars, assaults on the army - whether you are protected (soldiers) or not (shoppers), the militants are declaring, We can get at you. It's as if the country is becoming the hell Iraq was at its worst. The devil is not in the details - al-Qaeda's involvement, where the extremists are, how to retaliate. It's in Islamabad's broad, historical abdication of any government's most essential...
...called in to vet it. A Villepin intimate has testified he sent the list to a justice official convinced it was authentic, and that it wasn't until later that he learned the list was definitely a fake. What the judge overseeing the trial must now determine is whether Villepin ordered the forged list to be circulated hoping it might torpedo Sarkozy's presidential run - or whether Villepin himself is, as he claims, the innocent victim in the affair...