Environment
bcohen | January 22, 2007Virginia's State Advisory Board on Air Pollution released a report on greenhouse gases. Here is a Richmond Times-Dispatch front page story about it. What's fun is that famous anti-global warming critic, and University of Virginia Professor (though not "state climatologist"), Patrick Michaels "was on sabbatical and had no comment on the new report."
The report, my friend at the VA DEQ tells me, may be the first state-affiliated one in Virginia (other than academic papers from state universities) that discusses global warming and potential responses in any detail.
The newspaper article says…
tfk | January 21, 2007The BEAST lists all 50 "Most Loathsome People in America. There are some obvious choices, but these are some unexpected or particularly well-phrased entries:
47. Michael Musto
Charges: A friendly bacteria in America’s bloated entertainment entrails, giving vicarious life to that big brown celebrity baby we all waste countless hours coddling. Melon the size of an Olmec statue, yet not clever enough to elicit more than groans with his overwrought, nervous delivery of painfully unfunny puns. Motivated by transparent jealousy. Adds nothing in the way of meaningful criticism or analysis. Only…
evolvingthoughts | January 18, 2007
I have delivered myself of all kinds of opinions about agnosticism in the past. One common refrain from (in this case, god) deniers is "Are you agnostic about X?", where X is some obviously non-existent object like Thor, fairies, or Republican environmental policies. And the answer to that is not simple. Why is it not simple? The answer comes in a recent book by Peter van Inwagen, a philosopher, which includes a chapter on "Philosophical Failures" (available from here as a PDF).
van Inwagen suggests that philosophical argument is not between two disputants each of which holds an opposing…
evolgen | January 17, 2007Two science blogging carnivals have been posted in the past few days. The first edition of Oekologie (ecology and environmental science) is up at The Infinite Sphere, and Aardvarchaeology has the newest Four Stone Hearth (anthropology). Also, Evil Monkey is scheduled to post a fresh edition of Mendel's Garden any minute now -- or two days ago. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for that one too.
clock | January 16, 2007As always, fell free to rip apart either the papers or the pre-releases in the comments (if they deserve that, of course - some are OK:
Code Pink: Extreme Weather Leaves Flamingos Hungry:
Lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) at Lake Bogoria, Kenya, are suffering from malnutrition, report Earthwatch-supported scientists working there. The scientists are investigating the causes of recent large-scale mortality events, resulting in the death of thousands of lesser flamingos in Kenya last year and at least half a million birds during the 1990s. Post-mortem examinations on several flamingos…
tfk | January 16, 2007According to a report by the National Academies of science Cutbacks Impede Climate Studies:
The government's ability to understand and predict hurricanes, drought and climate changes of all kinds is in danger because of deep cuts facing many Earth satellite programs and major delays in launching some of its most important new instruments, a panel of experts has concluded.
The two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, determined that NASA's earth science budget has declined 30 percent since 2000. It stands to fall further as funding shifts to plans for a manned…
nisbetmc | January 16, 2007
In case you missed it, ScienceBlogs lit up last week with news that Federal Way school district in Seattle has banned Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, in part because the presentation conflicts with creationist views and does not depict a fiery End Times for the earth. (Go here, here, here, and here, to name just a few posts.)
The deeply distressing news from Federal Way is yet another sign that at the local level, elements of the conservative movement are broadening their attacks on the cultural authority of science by challenging not only the consensus on evolutionary science, but also in…
clock | January 16, 2007Why Are Lions Not As Big As Elephants?:
Carnivores are some of the widest ranging terrestrial mammals for their size, and this affects their energy intake and needs. This difference is also played out in the different hunting strategies of small and large carnivores. Smaller species less than 15-20 kg in weight specialize on very small vertebrates and invertebrates, which weigh a small fraction of their own weight, whereas larger species (>15-20 kg) specialize on large vertebrate prey near their own mass. While carnivores around the size of a lynx or larger can obtain higher net energy…
hrynyshyn | January 16, 2007Today's must read, from the Washington Post: The U.S. government is cutting back on environmental science.
The government's ability to understand and predict hurricanes, drought and climate changes of all kinds is in danger because of deep cuts facing many Earth satellite programs and major delays in launching some of its most important new instruments, a panel of experts has concluded.
The two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, released yesterday, determined that NASA's earth science budget has declined 30 percent since 2000. It stands to fall further as funding shifts to plans…
pharyngula | January 15, 2007Ken Ham is in the news again, and he knows exactly what he's doing, the cunning little rat.
While foreign media and science critics have mostly come to snigger at exhibits explaining how baby dinosaurs fit on Noah's Ark and Cain married his sister to people the earth, museum spokesman and vice-president Mark Looy said the coverage has done nothing but drum up more interest.
"Mocking publicity is free publicity," Looy said. Besides, U.S. media have been more respectful, mindful perhaps of a 2006 Gallup Poll showing almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve, but were created…
cevans | January 15, 2007
Sometimes fractured energies in our planet's noosphere can throw people together who, logically, should never meet. There's no rational reason I should count among my friends the particularly reclusive, Cologne-based science fiction writer and critic Mark von Schlegell; but, lo, kismet, I do. Schlegell's work is dogged and incredibly esoteric, a wry mix of stupid fantasy and devastating insight, and although they're clearly influenced by the awe and slime of pulp paperback sci-fi novels, his are the kind of books that get published by MIT and Semiotext(e). His first and only novel, Venusia,…
hrynyshyn | January 13, 2007Gary Trudeau sticks it to the creationists in today's Doonesbury. The topic of the day is the sad fact that the U.S. National Parks Service sells in its Grand Canyon gift shop a book that offers a Biblical chronology for the world's creation, a fact that makes it very hard to explain how the canyon formed in a mere 6,000 years. Good old Bob Park at the University of Maryland has been following this sad case for three years now, but it's nice to see Trudeau bring it to a wider audience.
There's also this feature from The New York Times that follows a creationist rafting trip down the canyon…
sb admin | January 8, 2007by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz
Mr. Milkey (for the State of Massachusetts): Respectfully, Your Honor. It is not the stratosphere. Itâs the troposphere.
Justice Scalia: Troposphere, whatever. I told you before Iâm not a scientist.
(Laughter)
Justice Scalia: Thatâs why I donât want to deal with global warming, to tell you the truth. [PDF of arguments here]
We all know that our children lack basic understanding of science and how it works. The dearth of math and science majors in our universities and the huge percentage of kids who know little or nothing about evolutionary theory are…
clock | January 5, 2007Here is a post exactly a year old (January 02, 2006)
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There was an interesting discussion a few weeks ago on The Carpetbagger Report about the viability of third parties in the US political system.
Of course, the US system is officially a multi-party system. There are dozens of political parties out there, each with a name, a logo, a platform, elected officers, a newsletter, etc. Several have managed to field candidates in local and statewide elections. Greens, Libertarians and Reformists have had Presidential canidates and some impact during the…
tlambert | December 31, 2006Geoffrey Lean in The Independent claims:
Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true. ..
Two-thirds of nearby populated island Ghoramara has also been permanently inundated. Dr Sugata Hazra, director of the university's School of Oceanographic…
mikethemadbiologist | December 30, 2006You might not know this, but, due to pressure from Republicans beholden to batshit lunatic creationists theological conservatives, park rangers at the Grand Canyon are not allowed to discuss how old the Grand Canyon is. Really. I'm not making this up. From PEER:
Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees. Despite promising a prompt review of its approval for a book claiming the Grand Canyon was created by Noah's flood rather than by geologic forces, more than…
pharyngula | December 30, 2006At this point, it's safe to say the National Park Service is stonewalling. There is a book called The Grand Canyon: A Different View, written from a young earth creationist perspective, which the NPS has approved for sale in its bookstores. It is a truly appalling piece of crap; I wrote about in in July of 2004, and you can read excerpts from it online. One might argue that the appearance of the book is simply due to a lack of discrimination by the Park Service, which just shovels the gimcracks and gewgaws into their stores to make money, but apparently they try to exercise some due…
nisbetmc | December 26, 2006
In one of the strongest declarations I've seen from a major newspaper editorial board, the San Jose Mercury News calls on Congress in 2007 to enact major legislation to deal with global warming:
Climate change at crisis level
EVERYONE -- PUBLIC AND PRIVATE -- MUST ACT TO AVOID CATASTROPHE
Mercury News Editorial
Global warming is the greatest environmental threat that humanity has ever faced....The United States produces about one-fourth of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, yet we're the only major nation that officially denies there's a problem. This is the year for all of us --…
sporte | December 21, 2006Yes, indeed the DVDs are now available on a first-come, first serve basis.
The NSTA has a link to the DVD giveaway page. And the NABT (National Association of Biology Teachers) has written about it, too.
From the NABT:
The DVD's will be given away starting Monday, December 18, 2006 thru Thursday, January 18, 2007. Teachers are encouraged to log on to www.participate.net to request the DVD, which will be delivered within 6-8 weeks. Every teacher must provide a nine-digit federal tax ID number belonging to the school where they teach.
A free downloadable curriculum guide to accompany An…
sb admin | December 12, 2006By Dick Clapp
On December 1, NPRâs Living on Earth aired a segment on conflicts of interest in medical research. Host Bruce Gellerman interviewed Dr. Lennart Hardell, lead author of a recent article on conflicts of interest in cancer research published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Catherine DeAngelis, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and me. On LOEâs website, thereâs also a conversation between Gellerman and Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, one of the researchers whom Hardell and his co-authors criticized in their article.
Itâs instructive to…