Environment

Ok, you caught me! This post wasn't originally one of my Evolution series. It was written long before, and published in The Open Laboratory 2008. But it IS a post about evolution, and this week is all about evolution on Observations of a Nerd, so I say it counts! It seems that you can't have a conversation about evolution that doesn't end with everyone involved feeling frustrated. You can't even mention the word 'evolution' without bringing up a political philippic, religious rant or scientific squabble. Unfortunately, this keeps everyone from the conversations that really matter - of course…
Okay, so this one is a bit of a tear-jerker and I usually like to avoid mixing sentimentality with environmentalism, but it is very informative and interesting if sad. It is greenman3610's Climate Crock of the Week from about three weeks ago and as usual well worth watching. I tend to be skeptical about anthropomorphizing our fellow earthlings, but I'll be damned if that wasn't a very affectionate mama walrus hugging her baby! If walruses weren't so ugly they just might top polar bears in terms of public concern...
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Global Warming News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsOctober 17, 2010 Chuckles, Tianjin, Busan, COP16+, CBD, ICAO, ASPO, Jung et al., Lacis et al., Pakistan Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Global Institutions, BAD, Living Planet Report, Haigh Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Monsanto, WFD, Pavlovsk Agricultural Station, GMOs, Food…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Instability News Information overload is pattern recognitionOctober 10, 2010 Chuckles, Tianjin, Copenhagen Accord, COP16+, ASEM, Syed, Haigh, Pakistan Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, Finance, No Pressure, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks Aerosols,…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Global Warming News Sipping from the internet firehose...October 3, 2010 Chuckles, COP16+, Tianjin, Right Livelihood, Loopholes, IUCN, Royal Society, Collisions, Pakistan Carbon Tariffs, Subsidies, IP Rentiers, Bin Laden, No Pressure, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Food Corps, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs,…
Every so often someone comes up to me with fiery eyes and raring for a battle and says "I don't believe in Peak Oil" or "I don't believe in Climate Change." When this happens, I think they expect me to argue with them, and I do. But isn't the argument they expect - my standard response, correct almost 100% of the time is not to make the case for peak oil or climate change, but to argue "Yes, you do, in fact, believe in them." Telling other people what they believe is a chancy business, but I feel reasonably confident in doing so, because when someone says they don't believe in peak oil or…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Instability News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsSeptember 26, 2010 Chuckles, Equinox, COP16+, MDG, FAO, MEF, CGI Thompson, Big Picture, Pakistan, Subsidies, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food Weapon, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes, Monsoon, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Aerosols Ozone, Solar…
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming I've been putting off posting my review of this book until just the right moment. Perhaps that moment is now, with the juxtaposition of a serious storm ... hurricane Gustav ... arriving in the vicinity of New Orleans and the opening day of the Republican National Convention, since both charismatic hurricanes and not so charismatic politicians play such a large role in the book at hand. Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, by Chris Mooney, is a well written, informative, captivating,…
It is very common, across the U.S., for science teachers to dread the "evolution" unit that they teach during life science class. As they approach the day, and start to prepare the students for what is coming, they begin to hear the sarcastic remarks from the creationist students. When the day to engage the evolution unit arrives, students may show up in the classroom with handouts from anti-science sites like Answers in Genesis, to give to their friends. They may carry a bible to the lab station and read it instead of doing the work. If there is a parent conference night around that…
Story A on Yahoo! News: FDA to consider approval of modified salmon "This is perhaps the most studied fish in history," he said. "Environmentally this is a very sustainable technology." Stotish says the fish would be bred in better conditions than many of the world's farmed salmon, and could be located closer to population centers to help feed more people. The company has also said the increase in engineered salmon production could help relieve endangered wild salmon populations. ... "It is outrageous to keep this vital information secret," said Wenonah Hauter, director of the advocacy group…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Instability News Information overload is pattern recognitionSeptember 19, 2010 Chuckles, COP16+, WEF-Asia, WEC, MDG, MEF, Bug, Pakistan Bottom Line, World Bank, Ecuador, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Megafauna, Arctic Lows, Geopolitics Food Crisis, Pavlovsk, Higher CO2, AgroBiz, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Riots, Land Grabs, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes…
Science Blogs is celebrating the beginning of the new school year with a series of 101-style posts, introducing the basics of a concept. I've got a couple of basics posts I'd like to do, but this one seemed particularly apt to me. I'm a homeschooler, but it isn't only homeschoolers that struggle with the question of how you frame our ecological situation for children in ways that are honest, not too frightening, engaging, and age-appropriate. Because most schools of every type offer a very superficial education in ecology, most parents of kids going to school will need, just as badly as…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Instability News Another Week of Climate Instability News Sipping from the internet firehose...September 12, 2010 Chuckles, ASEM, COP16+, Geneva, World Water Week, Bees:Study, Bees:Spin Future CO2, Boris Worm, Pakistan, Correa, Cook, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Narwhal, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Pavlovsk Experimental Station, Food Riots, Land Grabs,…
Here is the most recent press release from the Festival published on Businesswire. WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Over 22 senators and 64 Congressional representatives announced their support for improving U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics education (STEM) today by joining the USA Science & Engineering Festival Honorary Congressional Host Committee. Members of this bi-partisan committee represent over 32 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territory of American Samoa. The goal of the USA Science & Engineering Festival and the Honorary Congressional Host…
Image: Nagoya Congress Center plus Millenium Falcon reworked from original photo by Paula Pedrosa. link. Originally made for a series of Nagoya COP10 primers at Boing Boing (1 | 2 | SB | 3 | 4) I: SORTING OUT THE VERNACULAR So what is up with this Nagoya thing? Well, it's a big international meeting that is happening in Nagoya's Congress Centre (see the picture above), starting on October 18th and lasting until the 29th. No doubt, you weren't necessarily lured into finding out more by the conference's bouncy theme song. You certainly weren't intrigued by the reams of official documents,…
Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News September 5, 2010 Chuckles, Geneva, COP16+, Impact Theory, Bryozoans, Alroy, Lee, Pakistan Bottom Line, Environmental Risks, Grumbine, Cook, Lomborg, Input, IAC, Post CRU Melting Arctic, Tanker, Methane, Geopolitics, Cairn, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Land Grabs, Pavlovsk Agricultural Station Food Riot, Rome Meeting, The…
(Note: due to blockages in the intertubes, this week's installment is late. Apologies to all whose week ground to a halt while anxiously waiting...) Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Information overload is pattern recognitionAugust 29, 2010 Chuckles, COP15, COP16+, COP15 Cash, Overshoot, Thermosphere, The Question, Pakistan Bottom Line, Subsidies, Cook, IAC Leak, Post CRU,…
History repeats itself. Boy does it. This was never more evident than after I finished reading Charles Wohlforth's The Fate of Nature (2010), which has a few ominous chapters dedicated to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Wohlforth was a journalist who covered the spill in the field and after reading his account, I was humbled by the realization that none of my observations of the BP oil spill were orignal. The landscape is almost exactly the same, except for the fact that BP is going to wind up paying less money for a bigger disaster and that photoshop didn't exist yet, so Exxon couldn't…
About a year ago I was sitting around with a couple friends and they asked me where I thought my career was going. They were genuinely curious - what does blogging actually lead to? What kind of career advancement might a blogger get eventually? Can you transfer from blogging to journalism? Get a job at a better blog? Where does all this take you? My comments was that in many ways, I don't know the answer to that. I think in the longer term, journalists and bloggers are going to reconnect, but how that connection may happen, or what the future of that connection might be is extremely…
Former New York Times environment reporter Andrew C. Revkin was, once upon time, considered the leading light in that small community of professional journalists who have the luxury of devoting most of their working hours to climate change. Not so much anymore. Since leaving the Times a few months back to assume the role of senior fellow for environmental understanding at Pace University, Revkin has maintained his quasi-journalistic role as the blogger behind the times Dot Earth blog. But the big change over the past year or so involves his reputation among other climate bloggers. It's not…