There is increasing evidence that not only are we currently altering the global climate, but that humans have influenced regional climates in the past. A good place to start looking at this idea is today’s post on the NASA Earth Observatory. The paper discussed contributes to the evidence that Mayan agriculture contributed to the collapse [...]
It is good to see all the opposition to SOPA and PIPA, including today’s website blackouts. The flow of information due to the right to free speech is necessary for a democracy to function. SOPA and PIPA will have a negative impact on free speech and fair use, all for the cause of allowing a [...]
In reading some sections of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007 (usually just called AR4) while looking for sources for another project, one thing really stood out: it is full of optimism. This optimism may surprise you. It certainly surprised me, given the severity of the environmental problems we must deal with in [...]
As someone who enjoys debunking myths and misconceptions, I found The Debunking Handbook by John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky interesting. It is only six pages long, but includes some tips that will be useful for teaching in general as well as in debunking efforts.
I am pro-clean air. I am pro-clean water.—Rand Paul Libertarians invariably claim they want clean air and water, but then go out of the way to ensure that gratuitous damage to the earth continues. An example of this pattern is Senator Rand Paul’s recent attempt to prevent the EPA from regulating cross-state pollution from power [...]
While reading a recent post on RealClimate, something that I noticed several years ago was reinforced: climate scientists are more careful at math than their detractors are. Even in a simple blog post, Ray Pierrehumbert is careful to avoid double-counting emissions. This is a nice contrast to the ‘skeptics’ who typically double-count the cost of [...]
It is no longer a luxury to make our economy low-carbon and sustainable. It’s a matter of preventing harm to the species who dwell on the Earth, including our own. Just as an ailing patient can recover, so can an ailing planet. But we must act now. [page 5] Changing Planet, Changing Health by Paul [...]
Since the price of gasoline in the US is increasing again, the talk making ridiculous claims about gas prices are too. For example, I recently received a chain email titled “Buy AMERICAN Gasoline”. This particular email (which I won’t help spread by posting a link) claims that we should buy “AMERICAN” gasoline or we will [...]
Here are four articles to read this weekend: ‘The Tyranny of Defense Inc.’ from The Atlantic about the insight of two of Eisenhower’s speeches. ‘Light Out, Huck, They Still Want to Sivilize You’ from the New York Times is about the latest edited edition of Huckleberry Finn. The original is public domain (as it should [...]
Categories: climate, energy, politics
Also tagged Bosnia, Eisenhower, energy, Huckleberry Finn, Koch, military-industrial complex, politics, public domain, Tea Party
Interesting fact of the day: multiyear sea ice is ~1/3 more reflective than first-year sea ice. I knew that salt is gradually forced out of ice, but didn’t grok that this changes reflectivity. What this means is that the loss of multiyear ice in the arctic is even more significant than I thought it was. [...]