Environment
sb admin | June 13, 2008by revere (cross posted at Effect Measure)
If you want to see what difference environmental protection enforcement makes, just go to eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union. Or China. In the 1970s the US led the world in cleaning its environment and was consolidating its gains with well-staffed, motivated federal and state environment agencies. But that was then. Last weekend the US Senate couldn't even manage a paltry 60 votes to stop a filibuster of a bipartisan and none too strong global warming bill. This kind of failure isn't new. The US slow motion fall in environmental leadership has…
revere | June 13, 2008If you want to see what difference environmental protection enforcement makes, just go to eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union. Or China. In the 1970s the US led the world in cleaning its environment and was consolidating its gains with well-staffed, motivated federal and state environment agencies. But that was then. Last weekend the US Senate couldn't even manage a paltry 60 votes to stop a filibuster of a bipartisan and none too strong global warming bill. This kind of failure isn't new. The US slow motion fall in environmental leadership has been going on for decades. In the Bush…
petnoyer | June 12, 2008
The Bush administration has outlined plans for a "blue legacy" that would use Presidential authority to establish new national monuments, along the lines of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. This is something Deep-Sea News reported on two years ago as a case of "sanctuary envy" not to be outdone, but due to new developments, the story has caught the attention of National Public Radio and The Intersection. Five new national marine monuments are being proposed (see map above, and story at NPR). The question I have is this: why would we establish these huge new monuments in the…
gregladen | June 10, 2008The film we've all been waiting for ... Randy Olson (of Flock of Dodos fame) has produced a new film called Sizzle. In the film Olson uses the approach he used in Dodos to address the global warming issue. I have not seen the film but hope to review it soon.
Mean time, here's the press release in full:
SILLY AND SERIOUS PREMIERES:
"SIZZLE: A GLOBAL WARMING COMEDY" OPENS AT OUTFEST AND WOODS HOLE FILM FESTIVALS IN JULY
Hollywood, Ca. (June 9, 2008) - The new feature film from scientist-turned-filmmaker Dr. Randy Olson ("Flock of Dodos: the evolution-intelligent design circus," Tribeca 2006…
hrynyshyn | June 9, 2008Earth: The Sequel
The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming
by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn
Has the climate crisis got you down? Cheer yourself up with yet another dose of (almost) unbridled optimism from the president of the Environmental Defense Fund (Fred) and one of his staffers (Miriam). Don't be fooled by the odd choice of title; this is actually an ode to the free market.
We've been here before. Last year came a compendium of attractive investment options in the form of The Clean Tech Revolution by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, and for those who really can't stomach the idea…
illconsidered | June 9, 2008 Sipping from the internet firehose...
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) Top Stories:Meetings - UNFCCC, G8 & OECD, Nargis, US Climate Bill, IEA Report, Late Comments Food Crisis, Rome Summit, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Abrupt CC, ENSO, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Desertification, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering, Adaptation Journals, Misc…
tlambert | June 5, 2008Matt Nisbet reports:
A new study by a team of political scientists and sociologists at the journal Environmental Politics concludes that 9 out of 10 books published since 1972 that have disputed the seriousness of environmental problems and mainstream science can be linked to a conservative think tank (CTT). Following on earlier work by co-author Riley Dunlap and colleagues, the study examines the ability of conservative think tanks to use the media and other communication strategies to successfully challenge mainstream expert agreement on environmental problems.
(Clarification: A couple of…
worldsfair | June 5, 2008
Having just returned from a visit to the magic kingdom, the above was a question that continually haunted my consciousness. Disneyland was remarkably pristine in that cookie cutter, artificial, yet aesthetically pleasing way, but it must be a major sink in terms of waste, energy consumption, carbon emissions, etc.
Or is it? Maybe in terms of footprint, by applying its incredible density (>15 million visitors each year!), it comes out not looking so bad?
It should be noted that Disney appears to be viewing environmental issues in a relatively serious manner, with a number of programs…
tetrapodzoology | June 4, 2008
Only time right now for one of those brief Dave Hone-inspired Tet Zoo picture of the day posts (or TZPOTDPs, yeah), and what with all the azhdarchoid news lately (Lü et al. 2008, Witton & Naish 2008) it's only fitting that we have more pterosaurs. Here's a photo I took back in the days of Tet Zoo ver 1 (June 2006): it shows what we might call The Birthplace of Pterosaurs, or God's Workshop or, more prosaically, downstairs at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth...
You'll note the tupuxuarid model that you might previously have seen in its blue phase,…
nisbetmc | June 4, 2008
If the author is skeptical of mainstream science, is there a conservative think tank behind them?
A new study by a team of political scientists and sociologists at the journal Environmental Politics concludes that 9 out of 10 books published since 1972 that have disputed the seriousness of environmental problems and mainstream science can be linked to a conservative think tank (CTT). Following on earlier work by co-author Riley Dunlap and colleagues, the study examines the ability of conservative think tanks to use the media and other communication strategies to successfully challenge…
oracknows | June 4, 2008I know I've been whining a lot about how blogging about antivaccinationists has taken over here of late. The reason, of course, is the "Green Our Vaccines" rally taking place in Washington, D.C. as this post first appears in your newsfeed. Yesterday, I wrote about how "Green Our Vaccines" is a sham and nothing more than an anti-vaccine rally as well as about how its organizers were causing a bit of a rift in the antivaccinationist movement by trying to adopt a kinder, gentler, crunchier, media- and (seemingly) eco-friendly message. Unfortunately, stuff keeps happening. So I've decided that,…
illconsidered | June 3, 2008 Sipping from the internet firehose...
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) Information Overflow is Pattern Recognition June 1, 2008 Top Stories:Buckets, US CCSP, Methane, CDM Doubts, Nagris Melting Arctic, Ilulissat Meeting, CBD, Pricy Fuel, The 1700 Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Feedbacks, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Satellites Impacts, Forests, Wacky Weather, Tornadoes, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation,…
grrlscientist | June 2, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
"Not skulking"
Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU [larger view].
People Hurting Birds
The number of lesser scaup is dwindling, and it could be an invasive species that does them in. Invasive snails and parasites are attacking these and other ducks on the Upper Mississippi. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say with no natural predators, the snails and the parasites are thriving, and killing off a duck population that is already in trouble. The snail has helped kill nearly 50,000…
hrynyshyn | June 2, 2008Wired magazine's June cover story would have the entire environmental movement drop everything but one campaign. You don't need to see the cover to know they're talking about climate change. Does such single-mindedness make even the slightest bit of sense? Sort of. But not for the reasons the editors provide.
First, it should be noted that Wired's attempt to explain why you should "Keep your SUV. Forget Organics. Go nuclear. Screw the Spotted Owl" and instead focus on just one thing: cutting carbon, is accompanied by a counterpart that makes eminently more sense. In his rebuttal, Alex Steffen…
sb admin | May 30, 2008As rising oil prices continue to grab headlines, the spotlight turns to what politicians are and arenât doing to solve our energy problems.
David Roberts at Gristmill is outraged that Senator McCain will miss the vote on the Climate Security Act (true to his pattern of missing 2007 environmental votes).
Also at Gristmill, Kate Sheppard reports on the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act just unveiled by Representative Ed Markey.
And with yet another Gristmill post, James Hansen takes three âGovernors Greenwashâ to task over their failure to deal appropriately with coal-burning…
gregladen | May 28, 2008... But don't panic. Apparently, this is normal.
It turns out that bacteria living at the bottom of the sea are far more abundant and diverse than scientists had previously thought. These bacteria appear to be consuming the planet's oceanic crust. This raises several interesting questions regarding the interaction and co evolution of life on Earth and the Earth itself.
[UPDATED]
This is all according to a paper being published May 29 in Nature. According to one of the study's authors, Katrian Edwards of USC:
A 60,000 kilometer seam of basalt is exposed along the mid-ocean ridge…
laelaps | May 27, 2008
Paleo-artist Michael Skrepnick
It is difficult for me to pick up a book about dinosaurs and not find some gorgeous artwork by artist Michael Skrepnick gracing the pages, if not the cover, of the book. He has created beautiful restorations of the distant past for Nature, National Geographic, Project Exploration, and many books about prehistoric life, making him one of the most hard-working and well-known paleo-illustrators around today. (For those who have been itching to see some of his new artwork, Michael has some good news for you. His website is going to be rebuilt and stocked up with…
grrlscientist | May 26, 2008tags: Birds in the News, BirdNews, ornithology, birds, avian, newsletter
Red-crested Turaco, Tauraco erythrolophus.
Image: John Del Rio [larger view].
Birds in Science
Surface tension can be a wonderful thing. It helps some insects walk on water. It allows the dappling of raindrops on the hood of a car. And, a new study in Science shows, it enables certain birds to eat. Like many birds, phalaropes, small shorebirds with long, thin beaks, feed by pecking, but phalaropes peck at water, capturing droplets, on the order of a tenth of an inch in diameter, which can contain tiny crustaceans or…
illconsidered | May 26, 2008 Sipping from the internet firehose...
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) Top Stories:Nargis, Knutson, Permafrost, Melting Arctic, Food Crisis, Food vs. Biofuel, Food Production Hurricanes, Halong, GHG Stats, Feedbacks, Paleoclimate, Sea Levels, Satellites, DSCOVR Impacts, Acidification, Forests, Wildfires, Floods & Droughts Mitigation, Transportation, Buildings, Sequestration, Geoengineering Journals, Misc. Science, Pielke, Broecker Kyoto-2, Carbon Trade, Carbon Tax…
cmcclain | May 25, 2008A week ago I had the oppurtunity to attend the Cooking For Solutions Event held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The discussions Thursday were insightful and provided much to contemplate. Over the next few weeks, as I find time, I will post on numerous topics that arose at the event.
One of the interesting concepts, and one that I was unfamiliar with, was 'green washing'. We are familiar with the act even if we do not know it by name. It was discussed by Gene Kahn, currently VP and Global Sustainability Officer for General MIlls. He is a pioneer of the organic food and farming movement…