environment
pharyngula | April 30, 2011This video begins with a clip from Glenn Beck which nearly had me running away screaming, but stick with it — it thoroughly explains the false scandal.
mikethemadbiologist | April 28, 2011Over the last couple of weeks, Chris Mooney has written several interesting posts and articles about how human cognition affects the incorporation of evidence, especially scientific evidence (e.g., global warming) and what that means for politics. At the back of my mind have been nagging issues of the assumptions Mooney has been making. The assumptions have been crystallized by a post by Timothy Burke. I'm not sure that voters are as irrational as Mooney makes them out to be--overall, I think they're far more 'low information' and focused on a few reasonable, if not perfect and sometimes…
jtoney | April 20, 2011
Korycheer Happy Children
To mark the one year anniversary of the disastrous BP oil spill, I wanted to share this article that I published last summer.
Like many New Jersey families, my children and I spent several sunny, fun-filled days on the Shore last summer, enjoying mini-golf, water parks and beautiful, pristine beaches. The BP oil spill disaster loomed over our brief vacation like an ominous dark cloud.
Since the BP oil spill began, my young children have been asking a lot questions -many of which I, or anyone else, cannot answer. "Why can't they turn off the pipe?" Before we…
sastyk | April 17, 2011I wrote this post years ago, and have republished it occasionally since - it has been a while, though, and it does go with the other one ;-)
Reasons to Stay Together in Tough Times
1. Gives you something sustainable to do during those rolling blackouts (sex and fighting would probably both fit the bill, actually.)
2. You can't afford dinner and a movie, much less romantic gifts for your mistress or new sweetie anyway. You might as well stay with someone whose expectations have already been lowered by exposure to the real you.
3. Lowered economic expectations mean that even if you are no…
jhalper | April 10, 2011
These guys are as adept with a lug wrench as they are with a mass spectrometer. Prof. Dan Yakir (second from right) and members of his group had to become licensed truck drivers to operate their newest equipment - which is all packed into a custom-built truck for hauling around the country. Until now, Yakir and his team have been working from the Yatir station - a fixed tower set in a pine forest on the edge of the Negev desert. This station is part of a global network that continuously measures carbon exchange and other nutrient cycles in different forest settings. Now, he and his team will…
mikethemadbiologist | April 3, 2011A while ago, I raised the problem--an inconvenient truth, if you will--that moving to a renewable energy future is going to be difficult:
My impression reading a lot of commentary about renewable energy is that there's this fantasy that we just have to build a bunch of windmills, install some solar panels, buy a Prius, and replace our windows and all will be well. But the brutal reality is that we need to urbanize our suburbs. We need to discourage detached housing. We need to massively fund local mass transit--not just SUPERTRAINS. We can't have people firing up their own personal combustion…
esiegel | April 1, 2011"This is Tokyo. Once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of Man's imagination." -Steve Martin
What was once only in the realm of our wildest science-fiction fantasies has become a nightmare come true for the people of Japan. Reports are everywhere that a fearsome, 200-foot tall monster emerged from the damaged Fukushima Reactor early this morning.
Referred to by eyewitnesses as some kind of whale-gorilla, the creature now has one Universally recognized name,
Godzilla.After emerging from the…
jdupuis | March 28, 2011I read these five books over about the last year or so and they all represent something I really look for in books on complex subjects -- for the most part, they concentrate on things individual people can actually do to make a difference. In this case, a difference in the future of the planet.
Whether it's where you live, what you eat, what you buy or how you get around, the choice is ours. Each of us, me and you, can make choices that, in the aggregate, can make a difference.
Mark Bittman's Food Matters and Betty Fussell's Raising Steaks are at least as much about food and food culture…
jtoney | March 25, 2011
This map shows a heatmap of 175,000 4.5+ magnitude earthquakes since 1973 based on data from the USGS (United States Geological Survey). And worldwide locations of nuclear power stations using information from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).
An alarming number of nuclear power plants are located within active earthquake zones. Will this be a clarion call for more stringent safety standards?
According to the maptd blog:
Following the incidents at nuclear power plants in Japan after the earthquake I was wondering which power stations around the world are near active…
jtoney | March 25, 2011
Ozone levels over the Arctic as detected by satellite on March 16. Credit: NOAA
This is the ozone hole like you've never seen it before.
Is the ozone hole related to climate change or the "greenhouse effect"? In a word, no.
What about Global Weirding (Thomas Friedman's phrase for increasingly extreme weather conditions)? Possibly not.
First, some background: {my emphasis shown in bold}
The Antarctic Ozone Hole was discovered by the British Antarctic Survey from data obtained with a ground-based instrument from a measuring station at Halley Bay, Antarctica, in the 1981-1983 period. They…
jtoney | March 23, 2011
This article was co-authored with Dr. Rama Hoetzlein, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Media Technology at the Aalborg University at Copenhagen. Dr. Hoetzlein prepared the graphic.
With increasing concern about radiation exposure in Japan and beyond, you might wonder: How much radiation am I getting? It depends...
Note that Dr. Hoetzlein and I are not experts in nuclear engineering; this graphic has been prepared using authoritative source material and is intended as a general guide.
This visualization shows a map of low level ionizing radiation levels received from…
drorzel | March 22, 2011Kevin Drum re-posts a chart on wind power made by Stuart Staniford showing that the number of new wind power plants installed in 2010 was way lower than in 2009 or 2008:
This is meant as a starting point for discussion about the big economic issues that might've caused this. One of the many, many reasons I'll never make it as a political pundit, though, is that when I see a graph like this, I'm inexorably drawn to speculating about aspects of it that really have nothing to do with the intended point. In this particular case, I look at this graphic and ask myself "Why are there so many wind…
mikethemadbiologist | March 22, 2011By way of Digby, we come across this proposal of how to reach 95% percent renewable energy by 2050. Before I get to some of the issue I have with the study (which is actually pretty good), I want to lay out my general views on energy use.
First, I'm not a 'fan' of nuclear power. While thorium-powered reactors would be a vast improvement over traditional reactors (and newer designs regardless of energy source would fail much more safely compared to older ones), even thorium isn't perfect. But what's really stupid are all of the calls for immediately stopping the use of nuclear power. (…
esiegel | March 21, 2011"And Lord, we are especially thankful for nuclear power, the cleanest, safest energy source there is. Except for solar, which is just a pipe dream." -Homer Simpson
If you've been reading or watching the news, you've probably been hearing a whole lot of information about the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.
And how the recent earthquake and tsunami have combined to turn the above scene into a potential disaster.
At present, however, contamination has been minimal, and the damage -- thus far -- has been practically zero.
What do I mean? Let's explain -- in the simplest terms possible…
jtoney | March 21, 2011
Crowd sourcing is now being used to report, in real time, reliable data of Japan's radiation levels. According to the developers:
We too have been watching events unfold in Japan. We have created this site in an effort to display the reliable data readings as they become available. While we are careful to evaluate new data sources, we welcome new reliable data from those on the ground in this crisis.
Data Sources
While we hope to gather data via our own website, we recognize the efforts of others out there who are actively seeking and parsing data and making it available for others to…
mikethemadbiologist | March 21, 2011Rightwing wackaloon and Minnesota Congresswoman and possible presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been traveling hither and yon in New Hampshire, which, according to Bachmann, is where the 'shot heard round the world' was fired. For those who don't routinely wallow in the depths of the Republican id, one of Bachmann's signature issues is saving the incandescent light bulb. No, really, I'm not kidding:
She conjured a tea bag from a hidden compartment in her blazer and began waggling it at the crowd.
She waggled it while stumping for her Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act, a bill she…
jtoney | March 19, 2011
Source.
Local produce, such as milk and spinach, are beginning to show potentially alarming signs of radiation up to 90 miles away from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants, according to Japanese officials. Will this be temporary or of long range concern?
According to an article in The New York Times:
TOKYO -- The government said Saturday that it had found higher than normal levels of radioactive materials in spinach and milk at farms up to 90 miles away from the ravaged nuclear power plants, the first confirmation by officials that the unfolding nuclear crisis has affected the…
pharyngula | March 18, 2011That reputable scientist, Ann Coulter, recently wrote a genuinely irresponsible and dishonest column on radiation hormesis. She claims we shouldn't worry about the damaged Japanese reactors because they'll make the locals healthier!
With the terrible earthquake and resulting tsunami that have devastated Japan, the only good news is that anyone exposed to excess radiation from the nuclear power plants is now probably much less likely to get cancer.
This only seems counterintuitive because of media hysteria for the past 20 years trying to convince Americans that radiation at any dose is bad.…
jtoney | March 18, 2011
Find out how to invest in energy stocks at EnergyAndCapital.com.
The ongoing human tragedy in Japan, now centered on the Fukushima nuclear power plants, highlights the need for innovative approaches to meeting our energy needs. This "peak oil clock" could provide some perspective into how much oil the world is consuming. Will this be a wake up call?
As I write this, the year to date consumption is more than 5.5 billion barrels.
jtoney | March 18, 2011
Source.
Engaged in the tragedy in Japan unfolding since March 11, getting reliable, consistent information can seem to be an impossible task. Do you ever feel like this hapless character trying to absorb information coming in so fast and furious, it's like trying to drink from a fire hose?
Getting accurate, current information about the disaster in Japan is much easier now, with the introduction of a special "wiki" maintained by the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners. Thanks to my colleague Dr. Sheryl Beach , Associate Professor of Geography and Earth Science at George…