There are a variety of metrics one could use to test the world's interest in the discussions being held by climate change policymakers gathering in Cancun this week. I will use a very personal one. As the Conference of the Parties came together in Copenhagen last year (COP 15), I was often on the phone with news organizations seeking perspective on the Kyoto Protocol, clean development mechanisms, carbon taxes, cap-and-trade and anything else that might be relevant to discussions of climate change and the world's response to it. This year in the run up to COP 16 not a single journalist has cal...

Last week brought another edition of the Flood Insurance Rate Maps. FEMA announced on October 29 that it was releasing new preliminary flood maps for Montgomery County, Maryland. Click here.  It has been 14 years since the last flood plain map was created and the good citizens have seen substantial changes in that period. Montgomery County's planning arm sets forth in its 2007-2009 report that the population has boomed over the last thirty years with an anticipated increase of 14% this decade, the fastest growing in Maryland. Click here. The effect of all this growth is telling. ...