hrynyshyn
Posts by this author
November 8, 2007
So Hillary has finally joined the bandwagon and called for an 80 percent cut, from 1990 levels, in fossil-fuel emissions by 2050, joining Edwards and Obama, Bill McKibben and most of the environmental movement. William "Stoat" McConnelly is skeptical. As well we should be. I am, of course, highly…
November 2, 2007
Yet another study undermines the seemingly obvious concept that trees are inherently good for what ails the planet, climate-wise. Carbon-offset vendors take note: you could be making things worse. They're still needed in the Amazon, of course, but not so much in Ontario.
Tom Gower et al write in…
November 1, 2007
I had a little fun yesterday -- at my own expense -- by writing what a few commenters correctly identified as an attempt to generate traffic on this blog. The subject was the use of the term "woman president," which I actually do think is poor English, but my motivation wasn't convincing anyone…
October 31, 2007
For reasons unknown to this observer, Tim Russert has in some parts a reputation as a serious journalist. Last night's Democratic presidential debate should put that notion to rest. Russert asked Dennis Kucinich to verify a passage from a new book by reincarnation nut-case Shirley MacLaine in which…
October 29, 2007
You know the English language is in trouble when both NPR and the BBC World Service decide that "woman" is an adjective, as in "Argentina has just elected its first woman president." As a copy editor, I had to fix that one numerous times, usually in the copy of young reporters whose excuse was that…
October 27, 2007
Mark H at the Denialism blog asks if a story on CNN's website about how to get rid of ghosts in your house is a joke. Turns out the original story is from the online version of This Old House magazine (to which I subscribe, living as I do in an old house in need of renovations.) And considering how…
October 26, 2007
There's no getting around it: the climate is just too damn complex, and computer models, "no matter how powerful, can never give a precise prediction of how greenhouse gases will warm the Earth, according to a new study" (New Scientist) So say a couple of guys who have published their mathematical…
October 26, 2007
Eighteen years ago British journalist/historian James Burke wrote and starred in a TV documentary on climate change. After the Warming (downloadable version available at Google Video) was presented in the guise of a future historian's review of the events leading up to a time, in 2050, when the…
October 25, 2007
A paper speculating on the mechanisms responsible for the origin of life on Earth gets retracted, 52 years after it was published. Why? Because the author, a secular chemistry professor at Brooklyn College, is tired of creationists using it to support their arguments against evolution.
How sad. In…
October 24, 2007
No, I don't mean that the idea the world's oil production has peaked and is now declining has been discredited. Anything but. Rather a seemingly respectable group of parliamentarians and scientists has concluded that the peak has already happened. Last year, to be precise, according to the Energy…
October 23, 2007
It's funny, 'cause it's true. Well, metaphorically speaking...
October 22, 2007
Jon Gertner's feature in the current Sunday New York Times magazine is a timely reminder of 1) why the Nobel Committee is giving peace prizes to environmentalists and climatologists, and 2) why (as if we needed another reason) Bjorn Lomborg is wrong when he argues mitigating climate change is a…
October 21, 2007
I've just come across a wonderful concept thanks to Grist. I have no idea if it will work, but it seems worth trying: Run by the Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, and the Ecology Center, Catalog Choice can, they claim, "put a stop to all those unwanted catalogs…
October 18, 2007
Sooner or later, it would seem even the most brilliant and accomplished scientist says something stupid. James Watson's disappointing pronouncement on race and intelligence is in no way excusable, but it may be explainable. Would that it were not so, but I fear the law of inevitable stupidity will…
October 16, 2007
Just about everyone pushing civilization to kick its fossil-fuel habit includes photovoltaics in the list of renewable technologies that will be required to fill the power supply gap. And just about every week one can read about a new breakthrough that promises to make in solar cell technology…
October 15, 2007
I've never met Bjorn Lomborg. Never exchanged emails or shared a public forum with him. Although I have seen him speak twice, and I have to concede he's a compelling character, one who's almost impossble to ignore. Until now, I just couldn't figure out how someone as obviously bright and dedicated…
October 12, 2007
Instead of celebrating the news that my man Al Gore is sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the thousands of scientists who supplied the raw material for the slide show that made him "the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding" of climate change, I am…
October 11, 2007
Anyone needing a good rebuttal to arguments in favor of reviving the nuclear power industry -- like this hopelessly amateurish, anachronistic and ill-informed screed on the SciFi Channel's technology page -- need look no further than a concise summary by Walt Patterson, an associate fellow at…
October 10, 2007
It was only three years ago that an environmentalist, Wangari Muta Maathai, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Is the Nobel committee prepared to award this year's prize to another champion of the environment? Betsafe.com, a live-betting site, is giving the best odds to the Intergovernmental Panel on…
October 9, 2007
Time magazine takes aim at yoga. And a lot of people ain't going to like what reporter Pamela Paul concludes:
The truth is, yoga, regardless of the form, doesn't offer a comprehensive way to get fit. According to a study by the American Council on Exercise, a national nonprofit organization that…
October 8, 2007
Getting around the problem of a lack of precise temperature measurements from anything but the most recent past is one of the most fascinating aspects of climatology. Today I came across yet another study that supports the notion that the earth, and more specifically the oceans, are warming at the…
October 7, 2007
They call it "climate porn," for lack of a more sophisticated vocabulary. Sensationalist. Alarmist. Hyperbolic. You pick the term. But the criticism is only valid if the media coverage of climate change is based on something other than a fair representation of the science of climate change. So is…
October 4, 2007
Look what the French are up to on the climate change front. According to Nature, a wide coalition of government, business, labor and environmental advocates have agreed on the following:
All newly built homes to produce more energy than they consume by 2020. Renovate all existing buildings to save…
October 1, 2007
Freeman Dyson is one of those important scientists it's impossible to ignore, even when he's dead wrong. In an interview with Salon, he says lots of silly things -- don't worry about the polar bear, religion and science are compatible, and "we have no reason to think that climate change is harmful…
September 27, 2007
The right-wing elements of the blogosphere have long despised Jim Hansen, he of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, for repeatedly undermining their thesis that all climatologists are either idiots or communists. But the one thing they really can't stand is someone who has the nerve to…
September 27, 2007
No, there's no revolutionary finding that maybe the world isn't warming. At least, not yet. But a group of researchers has at least come across evidence that one of the dreaded feedback mechanisms that could accelerate the temperature rise beyond our ability to cope may not be such a threat after…
September 27, 2007
Perhaps it isn't fair to make fun of the social sciences, and I know behavioral ecology has its merits, but can you believe people get paid to study how men and women hook up? From New Scientist we learn that:
... a little bit of flirting - smiling, raising eyebrows, nodding - goes a long way…
September 25, 2007
From the "everything you thought you knew about X is wrong" files: an exposé on exercise. Seems there really is no evidence that working out or running hard will help you lose weight. Instead, it all comes down to diet. From New York magazine:
For the last 60 years, researchers studying obesity and…
September 21, 2007
Wal-Mart scares me on the best of days, but not quite like this. Seems there was a two-year-old who "had a fit" when he came across a Wal-Mart Halloween display that came to life before his innocent little eyes:
The tot was with his grandmother on Tuesday night at the Hendersonville [N.C.] Super…