environment
clock | June 2, 2007In response to my previous post on the subject, I received a following e-mail (personal information omitted) from Colorado:
I'm active in opposing this for many reasons including the forced removal of American citizens from their homes and lands by the U.S. Military, the reality that the expansion serves the purpose of a multinational miltary-industrial complex, the use of the military as a tool of economic development for Colorado Springs, and the destruction of thousands of pre-historic and historic sites including world-class dinosaur digs and track ways.
Here are a couple of things that…
mikethemadbiologist | June 2, 2007Our Benevolent Seed Overlords have published an article by ScienceBlogling Chris Mooney about the need to reframe the global warming debate in language that non-scientists are more likely to respond to positively. While I don't disagree (who would argue that scientists should intentionally alienate people?), I wonder if that's the real problem. I would argue the problem is that the solution to the problem hasn't been clearly defined.
I've learned from my work on antibiotic resistance that if you simply state a problem and don't provide an answer to the problem, people get frustrated. After…
pharyngula | May 31, 2007Long time readers will know how fond I am of the Index to Creationist Claims, a long list of common creationist arguments linked to short, pithy rebuttals with references. Now the gang at Gristmill have done the same thing for climate change, with a How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic page containing a list of common global warming denialists claims linked to blog entries that address the criticism. This should be handy!
One weird thing, though, is that since the answers are blog entries, people can actually comment on them…and of course, the denialists are out in force. It's useful to see that…
clock | May 29, 2007Carnival of the Blue:
World Ocean Day is June 8, and blogfish will host an ocean blog event. Please send links to some of your best recent work, and I'll post a list of links together with a brief comment.
This is a chance for all of you ocean bloggers out there to come together in one place. I've asked around, and there seems to be enough interest to call this a carnival, as the first installment in a regular (monthly) event. Dare we call it carnival of the blue?
Send your links to mpowell at oceanconservancy dot org, and I look forward to hearing from all of you ocean bloggers that I know,…
j7uy5 | May 28, 2007Sustainable
living could use more inventions like this.
href="http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_5998479">Eye on
Research: Researchers develop low-cost, low-energy desalination process
Sun News Report
Article Launched: 05/27/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
NMSU
report
A low-cost water desalination system developed by New Mexico State
University engineers can convert saltwater to pure drinking water on a
round-the-clock basis and its energy needs are so low it can
be powered by the waste heat of an air conditioning system.
A prototype built on the NMSU campus in Las Cruces can produce…
j7uy5 | May 27, 2007I
read this (Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson) when I was in fifth or sixth grade. It was a little
paperback book on my Dad's bookshelf. So it was quite a shock
to see it included as an "honorable mention" on the list of the "
href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=7591">Most
Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries."
class="image" title="">
alt="" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Rachel-Carson.jpg"
src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Rachel-Carson.jpg/200px-Rachel-Carson.jpg"
align="left" border="0" height="253" width="200">It
did not make the top…
j7uy5 | May 24, 2007The
Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture is worried about the
effects that climate change could have on Hawaii, given the fragility
of the ecosystem there:
href="http://starbulletin.com/2007/05/20/news/story03.html">Warming
signs seen stressing state's growth
By Helen Altonn
20 May 2007
Hawaii will be "the canary" that alerts the rest of the world to the
damaging effects of climate changes, says Andrew Hashimoto, dean and
director of the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture
and Human Resources.
"If not the canary, it will be one of the canaries," he said in…
j7uy5 | May 20, 2007This
topic (global dimming) has already been mentioned on SB twice, once on
href="http://scienceblogs.com/stoat/2007/04/egu.php">Stoat,
once on
href="http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2006/08/what_is_global_dimming.php">Living
the Scientific Life. Others have picked up on it,
too (
href="http://oilbeseeingyou.blogspot.com/2007/05/global-dimming-global-warming-peak-oil.html">1
href="http://www.celsias.com/blog/2007/05/09/veiling-our-true-predicament-part-i-global-dimming/">2
href="http://www.globalwarmingisreal.com/blog/496/global-dimming-turning-down-the-sun/">3
4…
j7uy5 | May 18, 2007Each
of the major papers has to choose one story to have the most prominent
headline. Today, USA Today chose this one:
href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-17-gas-prices_N.htm">
href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-17-gas-prices_N.htm">Drivers
cut back — a 1st in 26 years
By Paul Overberg and Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
The
average American motorist is driving substantially fewer miles for the
first time in 26 years because of high gas prices and demographic
shifts, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal highway data...
The
growth in miles…
j7uy5 | May 16, 2007
Yet
another photo from
href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17644">NASA's
Earth Observatory page, showing yet more evidence of what
carbon dioxide hath wrought.
In
the past 125 years, the Athabasca Glacier has lost half of its volume
and receded more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles), leaving hills of
rock in its place. Its retreat is visible in this photo, where the
glacier's front edge looms several meters behind the tombstone-like
marker that indicates the edge of the ice in 1992. The Athabasca
Glacier is not alone in its retreat: Since 1960…
voltagegate | May 15, 2007Welcome to the 5th edition of Oekologie, the 'sphere's only blog carnival focusing on ecology and environmental science. We are always looking for hosts (especially for October) and contributors, so please check out those tabs if you're interested in either.
Some of you may know that I have a tendency to mix in some history when hosting science carnivals. So, for the first themed edition of Oekologie, we will be using ancient and medieval Arabic nature writing to frame our moving monthly mag of biological interactions in the environment.
Zoology One of the most famous Arabic zoological…
voltagegate | May 14, 2007Oekologie #5 will be published here tomorrow late morning early afternoon. If you've written anything about ecology and/or environmental science (I stress the science bit; politics to a minimum here) please send in your submissions via e-mail: thevoltagegate [at] gmail.com.
The theme will be ancient zoological and botanical writings, just to let you know. Don't worry about theming the posts, I'll take care of the "framing."
voltagegate | May 14, 2007"The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else."
-Jane Goodall
voltagegate | May 12, 2007From Ontario to Greece to Panama, what are participating bloggers finding out in the field? This thread will be constantly updated throughout the week, blog carnival style, compiling all of the bioblitzes that are being conducted. Please contact me if you have something up; I'll make sure I add it to the list.
Don't forget to check out all of the participant's photos at the Flickr group (over 300 photos now).
For info about the Blogger Bioblitz, follow the links:
Read more about the blitz
Visit the forum
See submission guidelines
Join the Flickr group
Find a field guide online
Download a…
voltagegate | May 12, 2007The second edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors, a new blog carnival about environmental education, is up at Alone on a Limb. For number two, Terrell takes us on a nature walk through school, even giving Oekologie a shout out. Thanks, all.
Have you written anything about environmental education lately? Have any plans to? Submit a post using the Blog Carnival form.
Tip: Julie
sarahdasher | May 11, 2007
A new Google Earth overlay allows you to track the progress of HMS Endurance. Sure, it lacks the glamour of Shackelton's initial voyage--but armchair explorers don't have to eat seals.
When the HMS Endurance deploys from Portsmouth, UK every fall, it has a mishmash of strategic and non-strategic objectives. Named for the ship commanded by famed Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton during his ill-fated 1914 expedition, the modern day Endurance has exploration as only a small part of its overall mission. Scientific research and public outreach are also on the docket for the 118-person crew…
grrlscientist | May 8, 2007tags: coconut oil, gasoline substitute, alternative fuel, Bougainville, South Pacific Islands
Have you heard about the clever people who live on the island of Bougainville, near Papua New Guinea? They are developing mini-refineries that produce a coconut oil to replace diesel fuel for their cars.
Unfortunately, because they depend upon imported fuel, shortages and high energy costs often cause many businesses to completely stop in this part of Papua New Guinea. But increasingly, the locals are turning to a cheaper and far more sustainable alternative to diesel: coconut oil. The coconut oil…
voltagegate | May 8, 2007Science Daily posted a few stories on climate change in the past two days, all three of equal interest.
The first study looks to the melting of the ice sheets that once covered the British Isles and how that affected ocean currents thousands of years ago. Will the same be true of Greenland's melting glaciers?
According to a revision article published in Science, ocean circulation during the last ice age was very different to present day circulation. The formation of deep water currents in the North Atlantic was much weaker and the flow of warm water from the Gulf Stream decreased. This led to…
sarahdasher | May 7, 2007The Earth isn't the only thing that's hotter than ever.
Rob Reiner's famously clueless rock-and-roll trio is reuniting for an unexpected reason: to save the world from global warming.
Twenty-three years after their debut in the cult classic This is Spinal Tap, guitarist Nigel Tufnel, singer David St. Hubbins, and bassist Derek Smalls will take the stage again at Wembley Stadium in London, as part of the Live Earth concert series. Other luminaries in the 24-hour, 150-artist, Live Earth lineup include Red Hot Chili Peppers,The Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas and Madonna.
As part of the media…
voltagegate | May 7, 2007Oprah makes me sick. She recently had another uber-hypocritical show about environmental issues and I thought it would be appropriate to repost my reaction to her first show about "going green", which was aired last June. Hey, at least her blouse is green, right?
Has anyone noticed how Oprah collapses into a pool of plasmodium when her guests start talking science? Sure, when it's relationship issues or the inner child, she's all over it, wielding advice like a psycho-babble hammer.
I got a phone call from my mother yesterday afternoon."Turn on channel four, Oprah's talking about global…