They describe "victory" as public doubt. That's how Chairman Henry Waxman characterized the American Petroleum Institute (API), and its take on climate change, in this morning's House Committee hearing on "Political Interference with Science: Global Warming, Part II."

Just 'public doubt'?

Lightweights.

Some real estate promoters, land speculators, and a local Building Owners and Managers Association managed to convince a nation that sunny California's earthquake problem could be safely ignored!

Natural hazards are hardly limited to the usual suspects -- earth, wind, fire and water. As real estate developments invade the frontier of desert, prairie, mountain, forest, and bayou, the natural inhabitants "do not go gentle into that good night," to quote Dylan Thomas.

The resulting struggle for existence at this "urban-wildland interface" is increasingly played out in real estate purchase contracts, seller disclosures, and buyer advisories.

If you're like me, you aim for a window seat aft of the wing. Then, you wile away the airborne hours watching the real estate stream beneath you on your leg-cramping way to that business meeting.

Now, you can watch it in bed, with your laptop on your chest!

As I type, Oregon and California pass by, in full color -- and near real-time. Crossing a vast expanse of brown desert and puffy clouds, the verdant Sierra Nevada and Central Valley come into view. There's no guessing which city I'm over. They're labeled for me.

It's not often that leaks from geeks make news. So, I won't pass up the opportunity. Here's the latest.

Glaciers are melting, sea level is rising, both at alarming rates. That much we knew (see The Slow Flood). But what's melting the glaciers? Until this week, the world's scientists were only pretty sure. Now they're close to certain -- it's us.

Due this Friday, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases its long-awaited report....

J. Peters asked, in response to my last post: "How real is a big tsunami threat for California or Hawaii?"

Great question. Thanks for asking. As this is of regional importance, I'll reply here.

In terms of a 30-year mortgage, the short answer is...

A new feature of the Property Disclosure Blog: Current events the seller probably should have disclosed, but didn't.

This is the stuff of which non-disclosure lawsuits are made. (We could cite examples from case law to make the point, but real events "ripped from the headlines" are much more interesting!)

The predicted January 2005 earthquake on New York's Spitzer fault generates an underwater landslide of legal reforms. This triggers a regulatory tsunami that sweeps through the countryside, claiming the top four publicly-traded brokerages in the US insurance industry. Then the waves spread to distant shores where brokers lose contingent bonuses and are compelled to disclose to homeowners and other policyholders their financial interests and profitable affiliated relationships in all transactions.

Now there's a metaphor that gives new meaning to a natural hazard!

Al Gore was at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco this week. He cheered on the experts whose studies document a significant rise in surface temperature in the past century and forecast dire global changes in the next if the warming trend continues.

A common thread through the climate sessions"?stitched a clear"?pattern for the world's coastlines: the tide is rising.

Global sea-level rise is a well-documented potential hazard whatever its cause. What does it mean for oceanfront real estate? And a more interesting question: when does it become a material fact in property disclosure?