Monday What's on the Web: WWF Climate Blog

Every Monday I highlight other bloggers or web contributors who are making important or interesting contributions to climate, sustainability, transportation or market transformation. Check back each week for another installment.
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For this Monday's "What's on the Web," I have selected WWF's Climate blog.  Beyond that, WWF has an excellent comprehensive section on their web site devoted to Climate Change.  It is well worth spending some time looking at.

The blog is found under the "Climate Change News" link, and it focuses primarily on bringing attention to the latest news on the climate change front.  Most posts include key links to other resources, which is a good way to expand your knowledge of other web resources (in addition to my Monday posts, of course).

Recent examples:

Sea Ice Extent Far Below Previously Recorded Levels in Northern Route of Northwest Passage

NOAA Joins NASA in Declaring that July 2010 was Warmest on Record for Northern Hemisphere

More Species Feeling the Heat

 

 

 

Day Seven: Everything You Need to Know About Global Warming in Thirteen Days

"7) The biggest cost of all from global warming is likely to be the accumulated loss of biodiversity. This features nowhere in economic cost-benefit analysis because, not surprisingly, it is hard to put a price on that which is priceless."

This is one of the greatest weaknesses of economics.  In general, when economics has trouble placing a value on something, it just assigns it a value of zero.  Nothing skews the results more than that.  In this case, biodiversity is valued at essentially zero in economic analyses, but its actual value is incalculably large.  Talk about a discrepancy!  E.O. Wilson's book, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth may not be the best book on this topic, but it comes from one of the greatest minds to ever think about biodiversity. . .or nature in general, for that matter.


[This one of a series of daily posts I am drawing from Jeremy Grantham's Summer 2010 Investment letter.  Mr. Grantham is on the Board of Directors of GMO LLC, a global investment firm with over $100 billion under management.  Mr. Grantham takes a large, worldview perspective on investments--with an eye toward long-term trends.  He is right-on about the impact of global warming.]