environment
clock | December 14, 2009Next Sigma Xi pizza lunch science talk:
Pizza lunch returns at noon, Tuesday, Dec. 15 with a talk by marine biologist Craig R. McClain, assistant director of science for the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham. McClain conducts deep-sea research and has participated in expeditions to the Antarctic and to remote regions of the Pacific and Atlantic. Expect him to dive into puzzling realms with his talk: An Empire Lacking Food: The Astonishing Existence of Life on the Deep Sea Floor.
American Scientist Pizza Lunch is free and open to science journalists and science communicators of…
emjohnson | December 13, 2009Journalist Robert Eshelman is blogging from Copenhagen throughout the UN Climate Conference and offers this cogent observation:
If there's going to be an agreement, it will come down mostly to money. The E.U. might offer more money and the U.S. might provide a counteroffer. There might be some movement on emissions targets from the E.U. but with the Senate's recent reduction of its emissions target, the door seems to be closed on Obama offering greater cuts. Offers of financing, particularly around addressing deforestation, might woo a number of developing and poor countries and secure their…
emjohnson | December 13, 2009Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, author of the international bestsellers The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, and the recent Rolling Stone article "Climate Rage," gave the following talks at the KlimaForum09 alternative climate conference in Copenhagen. As the US is insisting on a mere 17% reduction in carbon pollution based on 2005 levels (when the IPCC Working Group III Report calls for a minimum safe reduction of 25 - 40% from 1990 levels) she highlights how this conference will not come to an agreement that adequately meets the challenge we face. In order to do that, she argues, it will require…
grrlscientist | December 13, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
emjohnson | December 10, 2009Yep, this is pretty much how it works. Marc Roberts has this brilliant comic that sums up the spectacle currently underway in Copenhagen. Here's a taste, but make sure to click the link to see the whole thing.
emjohnson | December 9, 2009The so-called "Danish Text" agreement that was leaked to the Guardian newspaper has resulted in a firestorm of controversy. By far the most hostile reporting about the outrage that poor nations have expressed has been from the Financial Times.
FT Commentator Fiona Harvey wrote yesterday that:
The more the spotlight falls upon this Danish text, the more like a Danish pastry it looks.
Here's an assertion from Newsweek:
"Under the plan, by 2050 poor countries would have to limit per capita emissions at 1.44 tons, while rich countries would be given extra leeway at 2.67 tons per person."
Really…
jstemwedel | December 9, 2009It's quite likely, if you're reading anything else on the internets besides this blog for the past few weeks, that you've already gotten your fill of ClimateGate. But maybe you've been stuck in your Cave of Grading and missed the news that a bunch of emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) webserver at the University of East Anglia were stolen by hackers (or leaked by an insider, depending on who's telling the story) and widely distributed. Or maybe you're still sorting out what you think about the email messages in question and what they mean for their authors, the soundness of…
emjohnson | December 9, 2009Executive Director of the South Center Martin Khor and Journalist Naomi Klein are interviewed in Copenhagen:
Martin Khor: I think that the US has a positive role to play in the climate negotiations, which it has yet to play, by allowing those countries who are in the Kyoto Protocol--and that's all the developed countries except the US--to remain there and to take their commitments there and to take high commitments there to reduce their emissions by at least 40 percent. . .
Now, the reverse is happening, as we have seen in the Danish text, that those developed countries in the Kyoto Protocol…
emjohnson | December 8, 2009Kyoto would be replaced with a protocol run by the World Bank, says Guardian.Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
[updated below - Update II - Update III (Thurs.)]
The Guardian newspaper last night published a leaked draft of a climate agreement entitled only Draft 271109 but known as the "Danish Text" by UN delegates in Copenhagen. The revelation has driven a wedge between rich and poor nations as the draft proposal makes significant changes to the Kyoto Protocol and would place undue pressure on developing nations who had little to no role in the climate crisis to begin with.
As…
emjohnson | December 8, 2009
(updated below)
Media Matters is reporting that on December 4th Fox News manipulated the evidence from a poll to suggest that 94% of the US population thinks that scientists falsified evidence to support their beliefs about climate change. As can be seen, however, their numbers added up to 120%.
What happened? Well, here's the Rasmussen poll Fox & Friends cited. They asked respondents: "In order to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming, how likely is it that some scientists have falsified research data?" According to the poll, 35 percent thought it very likely,…
emjohnson | December 8, 2009There has been much ado about the hundreds of pages of stolen e-mails from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia. The reality of course is that this is about creating a wedge by those who are opposed to the regulations necessary to circumvent climate change and is not about the scientific realities. This strategy has been understood for nearly a decade and has even been acknowledged by those involved.
As The New York Times reported in 2003:
Most scientists believe that [global] warming is caused largely by manmade pollutants that require strict regulation. Mr. Luntz [a…
emjohnson | December 8, 2009
Maana (Now), Directed by Félix Pharand D.
As part of the United Nations COP15 Climate Change Conference is the Indigenous Voices on Climate Change Film Festival. Included in the festival is this humorous story of one Inuk teenager who is disturbed by how the climate crisis is affecting his community and sets out to do something about it.
pharyngula | December 6, 2009This is the debate on climate change: scientist with the evidence vs. shouting loonie with wild accusations of conspiracy. Listen to the very end when Watson sums up the other guy perfectly.
grrlscientist | December 6, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…
pharyngula | December 5, 2009This is an excellent response to the furious and unfounded assertions of the right-wing denialists that have followed from the release of private email by climate change scientists.
I'm on a couple of private mailing lists where we exchange views on evolution, and <shock horror> we actually argue it times, and sometimes even disagree heatedly with one another. That climate scientists hash out disagreements in vigorous private debate is no surprise, and no sign of either a conspiracy or intent to mislead the public.
clock | December 4, 2009It was 25 years ago yesterday that thousands dies in the Bhopal disaster.
Yesterday, Rhitu Chatterjee did the story about it (listen or read the transcript) on PRI The World.
Also yesterday, Rhittu and Elsa Youngsteadt interviewed Henrik Selin of Boston University about the topic (download the MP3 of the podcast here) and you can ask questions and join the discussion in the forums. Dr. Selin will be checking in and responding from now until next Thursday, December 10th.
milhayser | November 30, 2009
Last week, hackers pulled a data heist on the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, releasing thousands of stolen documents and emails that purportedly exposed a scientific conspiracy to fabricate evidence of global warming. Climate change skeptics dug into the data with forks and knives, choosing the choicest morsels as evidence of fraud. But ScienceBloggers are unimpressed by the stunt. On A Few Things Ill Considered, Coby Beck places tongue in cheek, rejoicing that the Greenland ice sheet is now refreezing. On Deltoid, Tim Lambert reports that NASA is being sued by the…
pharyngula | November 29, 2009Those kooky climate change denialists are at it again — we've been beaten to the poll-skewing punch on this one, a site that is collecting votes to use in demanding a strong response by the government to the challenges of global warming. We're behind by many thousands already, so it may take some work to bring it up — but give it a shot.
"I've seen the evidence. And I want the government to prove they're serious about climate change by negotiating a strong, effective, fair deal at Copenhagen."
5477 agree
8423 disagree
grrlscientist | November 29, 2009tags: Birdbooker Report, bird books, animal books, natural history books, ecology books
"How does one distinguish a truly civilized nation from an aggregation of
barbarians? That is easy. A civilized country produces much good bird
literature."
--Edgar Kincaid
The Birdbooker Report is a special weekly report of a wide variety of science, nature and behavior books that currently are, or soon will be available for purchase. This report is written by one of my Seattle birding pals and book collector, Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, and is edited by me and published here for your information and…