Archive for 2008

SECRET diplomacy. Hey, you can’t please everybody. And it’s usually a mistake to try.

GLOBAL WARMING: Good for Greenland?

Yet for the residents of the frozen island, the early stages of climate change promise more good, in at least one important sense, than bad. A Danish protectorate since 1721, Greenland has long sought to cut its ties with its colonizer. But while proponents of complete independence face little opposition at home or in Copenhagen, they haven’t been able to overcome one crucial calculation: the country depends on Danish assistance for more than 40 percent of its gross domestic product. “The independence wish has always been there,” says Aleqa Hammond, Greenland’s minister for finance and foreign affairs. “The reason we have never realized it is because of the economics.” . . .

But the real promise lies in what may be found under the ice. Near the town of Uummannaq, about halfway up Greenland’s coast, retreating glaciers have uncovered pockets of lead and zinc. Gold and diamond prospectors have flooded the island’s south. Alcoa is preparing to build a large aluminum smelter. The island’s minerals are becoming more accessible even as global commodity prices are soaring. And with more than 80 percent of the land currently iced over, the hope is that the island has just begun to reveal its riches.

Offshore, where the Arctic Ocean is rapidly thawing, expectations are even higher. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that Greenland’s northeastern waters could contain 31 billion barrels of undiscovered oil and gas.

Divine Providence is unveiling these resources just as we need them the most! Though if you’re really looking for miracles, the Greenlanders’ desire to live without subsidies from Danish taxpayers should probably take top billing . . . .

THE REAL ESTATE SLUMP, in one photo.

10 GREAT family DVDs for summer. They’ve got to be better than the one the Insta-Daughter and her cousin watched yesterday — December Boys, which — despite featuring Daniel Radcliffe, on whom the Insta-Daughter is crushing — was something of a disappointment, if not quite the Plan 9 From Outer Space of this decade.

JOHN LEO on campus free speech. Or, rather, the lack thereof.

VIRGINIA: Sitting on the energy mother lode! “In Pittsylvania County, just north of the North Carolina border, the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States — and the seventh largest in the world, according to industry monitor UX Consulting — sits on land owned by neighbors Henry Bowen and Walter Coles. Large uranium deposits close to the surface are virtually unknown in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. And that may be the problem. Virginia is one of just four states that ban uranium mining. . . . Yet it is not as if we have no experience with uranium mining, which is in fact relatively harmless.”

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Knoxville, Tennessee. She says she’s Tennessee’s only licensed raw-milk cheesemaker. I bought some sheep’s-milk Cumberland. It was excellent. Blessed are the cheesemakers! Er, and all dairy workers, of course. . . .

WHO VALERIE JARRETT IS TEXTING. Ready for subprime-time!

REMEMBERING THE 1980S, though somewhat rose-colored glasses.

And a different kind of 1980s nostalgia, at LikeTotally80s.com.

BAN COMPOUND INTEREST TO SAVE THE PLANET? Prof. Kenneth Anderson is not impressed.

PETER HUBER LOOKS behind the carbon curtain:

To judge by actions, not words, the carbon-warming view hasn’t come close to persuading a political majority even in nations considered far more environmentally enlightened than China and India. Europe’s coal consumption is rising, not falling, and the Continent won’t come close to meeting the Kyoto targets for carbon reduction. Australia is selling coal to all comers.

On the far side of the environmental curtain China already mines and burns more coal than any other country. Together, China and India control more than one-fifth of the planet’s vast coal reserves. Dar predicts–very plausibly, in my view–that the two countries may fire up a new coal plant as often as once a week for the next 25 years, adding about twice as much coal-fired generating capacity as the U.S. has today. Persian Gulf states are planning significant coal imports, because coal generates much cheaper electricity than oil or gas.

In developing countries the political survival of the people at the top depends on providing affordable fuel for kitchens, farms, fertilizer plants, steel mills, highways and power plants. Oil and coal are the only practical fuels at hand.

Read the whole thing.

MORE FARC/NGO HANKY-PANKY:

Spanish police say they have arrested the representative of the left-wing Colombian rebel group Farc in Spain. Maria Remedios Garcia Albert, a Spanish national, was detained near Madrid, as part of a joint operation by the Spanish and Colombian authorities. She faces charges of being part of an armed group and managing the rebel group’s finances in Europe. . . .

The BBC’s Steve Kingstone in Madrid says it is alleged that under the cover of her job with a non-governmental organisation, Ms Garcia provided organisational support and funds to the Farc.

The NGO sector could probably use a bit more scrutiny.

AUSTIN BAY SAID A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO that Moqtada al-Sadr was going to die the death of a thousand cuts. And now even the New York Times is noticing that that’s what’s happpened.

On the other hand, some diehards haven’t given up on a U.S. defeat . . . .