The Shadow of Nineveh

The federal government  is suing Arizona for the state’s efforts to enforce the federal immigration law.  The lawsuit alleges that Arizona is too zealeous in enforcing immigration law and encroaching on federal jurisdiction.  Yet, for years, several American cities have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities. City officials have bragged they would not allow their municipalities to enforce federal immigration statutes.

Question: Why does the federal gov ernment sue a state that seeks to enhance federal immigration laws and yet ignores cities that blatantly try to erode them?

ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2010) — A newly discovered molecular mechanism helps control the amount and effectiveness of a substance that mimics an active ingredient in marijuana, but that is produced by the body’s own nerve cells.

Professor David R. Legates of the University of Delaware claims flaws in the data and methods used to fashion the hockey stick mean it can no longer be viewed as valid. “There is an exaggeration of recent trends, suggesting that 1998 was the warmest year, and that the 1990s were the warmest decade of the millennium,” Dr Legates told BBC News Online.

John Tierney writes that the new federal report on climate change gets a withering critique from Roger Pielke Jr., who says that it misrepresents his own research and that it wrongly concludes that climate change is already responsible for an increase in damages from natural disasters.

Freakonomics blog

A quick visit to the U.K. confirms that environmental and global-warming concerns are, on the surface at least, acutely more pronounced here than in the U.S. Reminders and nudges seem to be everywhere, many of them seemingly intended to make you feel guilty for every breath you draw and every bite you swallow.

National Geographic News

Increasingly powerful “supertyphoons” will strike Japan if global warming continues to affect weather patterns in the western Pacific Ocean, scientists say. Supercomputer simulations show there will be more typhoons with winds of 179 miles (288 kilometers) per hour—considered an F3 on the five-level Fujita Scale—by 2074.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2009) — A spoonful of herbicide helps the sugar break down in a most delightful way.

Researchers at Brigham Young University have developed a fuel cell – basically a battery with a gas tank – that harvests electricity from glucose and other sugars known as carbohydrates.

San Francisco, CA (September 24, 2009) – California today approved the biggest utility energy efficiency program in the country’s history that will result in lower utility bills, cleaner air for Californians, and move the state a step closer to implementing its landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Statement by Dan Lashof, Director of the Climate Center at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“The American Clean Energy and Security Act is a win-win for our economy and our environment. Under ACES, there will be more jobs, less global warming pollution and greater security, all for less than the cost of a postage stamp a day. These are the conclusions of ‘A Clean Energy Bargain,’ an analysis released today by NRDC.”

Natural Resources Defense Council

In a landmark ruling, the federal court of appeals in New York ruled today in favor of states and private land trusts that had sued America’s largest global warming polluters to curb their emissions.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that five large electric power companies can be sued in federal court because their carbon dioxide emissions contribute to rising temperatures and a host of damaging impacts in other states, including heat waves, smog episodes, droughts and forest fires.

The Second Circuit held that federal courts are empowered to curb damaging carbon pollution unless and until the legislative and executive branches actually regulate that pollution, either under the existing Clean Air Act or the comprehensive new energy and climate legislation bending in Congress.