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Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
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Planet Earth:
Seeing the sun set across Pinnacles National Monument, while the full moon rises out past the San Andreas fault (below the fold) is pretty awesome. It would've been nice to see some condors, too. Though the horned lizard was pretty excellent....
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Posted on April 21, 2008 11:12 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Drew Ryun, twin brother of equally clueless Ned Ryun, discusses: the feeling that a vast majority of Americans share. The Democrats are not good on national defense.Hmmm. "Next, please tell me if you think the Republican Party or the DEMOCRATIC Party could do a better job in each of the following areas: Making wise decisions about foreign policy: R=40%, D=45%. Making wise decisions about what to do in Iraq: R=37%, D=47% This isn't new. Gallup found Democrats taking the lead on national security issues between 2006 and 2007, while Rasmussen found in early 2006 that more Americans trusted Congressional Democrats...
Posted on March 27, 2008 7:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Forest Service May Move to Interior - washingtonpost.com: Among some lawmakers who hold the purse strings, there is a belief that the U.S. Forest Service is out of place. The 103-year-old agency, which manages 193 million acres of forests and grasslands, is part of the Department of Agriculture. Its bureaucratic cousins -- the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, which manage 84 million acres, 96 million acres and 258 million acres of public land, respectively -- are in the Interior Department. … At the request of the House Appropriations subcommittee on...
Posted on March 25, 2008 2:28 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Via Brave New Films Tony Perkins takes on eco-friendly Southern Baptists. Perkins says "people are told and taught to look inwardly and making sure that they are spiritually prepared to meet the End Times, not throw away the keys to your SUV and jump on the Al Gore bandwagon." In other words, global warming is real, will hurt people, and will harm creation, but that's OK. To say that this is bad theology is trivial. It is horrific, practically inhuman, and surely indecent....
Posted on March 18, 2008 7:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Via BoingBoing, we find this graphic by Adam Nieman/Science Photo Library. On the left, a globe with all the water collected into a tiny marble, and on the right, a globe with all the air collected into a marble. We think of ourselves occupying the globe, but really, those two tiny spheres are all we can do anything with, and only a fraction of each is accessible. No new water is being created, and no new air is being generated (though it is stored, recycled, and reprocessed in various ways). That's all we've got, all our children will have. It's...
Posted on March 12, 2008 5:10 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Via The Sierra Club: Livestock create a beefy portion of all greenhouse-gas emissions: 18 percent, according to the United Nations. Could the answer be as simple as two slices of bread and a slathering of peanut butter and jelly? Perhaps. Compared with a burger, this classic sandwich saves as much as 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide, 280 gallons of water, and 50 square feet of land--even more if you wash it down with a glass of soy milk. "You don't have to change your whole diet to change the world," says the PB&J Campaign. "Just start with lunch."...
Posted on February 5, 2008 12:41 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In an arrogant and counterproductive move, the E.P.A. denied California's request for a permission to regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emission: The Bush administration said Wednesday night that it would deny California's bid to set stricter vehicle emissions standards than federal law required as part of the state's efforts to fight climate change. Stephen L. Johnson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said he planned to deny the state's application for a waiver from federal law that the state had sought more than two years ago. "The Bush administration is moving forward with a clear national solution -- not a...
Posted on December 19, 2007 10:07 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Everyone admires hurricanes, however grudgingly. When I hear someone described as "a force of nature," I envision a hurricane's hundred mile winds and waves whipped to such a frenzy that they merge with the air. The calm at the eye of the storm, the destructive potential, and the courage of the brave pilots and scientists who fly right through the walls of rain and cloud are the stone from which legends are carved. Of course, when that implacable power reaches our shores, admiration is in short supply, replaced by Job-like anger and despair. In Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the...
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Posted on July 19, 2007 10:50 AM • 0 Comments •
NASA reveals a new island off Greenland. Well, not necessarily new: Long connected to Greenland’s coast by ice, the island escaped recognition for what it was for nearly a century.As you can see from the Landsat images, the island was covered by ice 20 years ago, and an ice bridge connected it to the mainland only 5 years ago. The warming trend that humans have caused over the last half century removed those connections, driving the ice back 6 miles in 5 years, revealing an undescribed island to an intrepid pilot. Because of our actions here in Kansas, maps...
Posted on June 8, 2007 2:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The question of how to cut our production of carbon dioxide grows more urgent every day, and the focus tends to be on new sources of energy. Increased efficiency tends to get lost in the mix, even though it's the easiest and most readily implemented approach. Improving the carbon efficiency of buildings by 25% would produce one of seven "wedges" of carbon reduction needed to let atmospheric carbon dioxide level off. Doubling fuel efficiency of cars from 30 to 60 miles per gallon would have the same effect. Carbon efficiency can be boosted many ways, from simple steps like turning...
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Posted on May 29, 2007 12:22 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
