Environment
Category archives for Environment
If You Believe That Blankets Keep You Warm…
Posted by Ethan on August 30, 2011 “My girl, my girl, don’t you lie to me, tell me where did you sleep last night? In the pines, in the pines, where the Sun don’t ever shine, I’ll shiver the whole night through.” -Leadbelly, among many other variations It’s already been a couple of months since I wrote about Global Warming, and was…
Energy: Five Good Questions
Posted by Ethan on July 20, 2011 “Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we’re going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles.” -Bill Gates Energy is one of the most important topics facing our modern, industrialized…
Science could have it all wrong. But…
Posted by Ethan on July 18, 2011 “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” -C. S. Lewis Many of you are a little bit skeptical that I talk about things like the History…
The Global Warming Crisis
Posted by Ethan on June 27, 2011 “Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.” -Ambrose Bierce About a week and a half ago, I wrote an article called The Power of Theory In Science, where I mentioned the Big Bang, Evolution,…
The Power of Theory In Science
Posted by Ethan on June 16, 2011 “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” -Leonardo Da Vinci It’s often lonely, these days, as a theorist. As soon as most people hear the word theory, in fact, they start thinking about something like this: But…
Where is everybody?
Posted by Ethan on May 24, 2011 “If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens… Where Is Everybody?” -Stephen Webb As egocentric as we are, we know that not only are we but one planet of many orbiting our Sun, but that when we look up in the heavens, every point of light we see is another chance — another opportunity — for…
Oh, no! There goes Tokyo…
Posted by Ethan on April 1, 2011 “This is Tokyo. Once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of Man’s imagination.” -Steve Martin What was once only in the realm of our wildest science-fiction fantasies has become a nightmare come true for…
Nuclear Power: Fiction, Fear, and Facts
Posted by Ethan on March 21, 2011 “And Lord, we are especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest, safest energy source there is. Except for solar, which is just a pipe dream.” -Homer Simpson If you’ve been reading or watching the news, you’ve probably been hearing a whole lot of information about the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. And how the…
Why Physics Gives Us Earthquakes!
Posted by Ethan on March 14, 2011 “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” -Jeannette Rankin As you all surely know, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake just struck Japan, devastating the island of Honshu. Ask a geologist, and they’ll rightly tell you about plate tectonics, subduction zones, fault lines, and much, much more. But there’s a simple…
Weekend Diversion: Jewels of the World
Posted by Ethan on February 27, 2011 “Glaciers are almost gone from Glacier National Park.” -Donella Meadows This world is full of beautiful things that are simply awe-inspiring. Some of them are very much man-made, such as this 2007 song by Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby, Crown Of Jewels.But others took thousands of years to form. In many great places all over…
