There’s no doubt that I live a “greener” life in Brooklyn than I did while living in crunchy granola Boulder the previous year. Of course, I already miss Colorado’s vistas, the fox bounding past our spacious abode in the glorious foothills, and most of all, the house’s washer/dryer. But the one thing I don’t miss…Continue Reading…
The tragedy of Kenya’s latest drought is captured in all its complexity by Jeffrey Gettleman. His deeply contextual story won’t lend itself to climate advocates who’d probably like nothing better than to tag it as another cautionary tale of global warming. As Gettleman explains, The aid community here has been predicting a disaster for months,…Continue Reading…
Via Danger Room, here’s something that you may not want to know (or think) about: semis hauling nuclear material around America. Cause for concern? At the end of her post, Sharon Weinberger notes that Earlier this week a semitrailer carrying missile parts (but no nuclear material) operated by the U.S. Air Force overturned in North…Continue Reading…
This fascinating paper (sub req) in Nature on tipping points should have made a huge splash in the media. Hell, it should have at least prompted one of those 10,000 word posts on The Oil Drum. In her NSF press release, Cheryl Dybas does a nice job of summarizing the key findings. Here’s two snippets…Continue Reading…
Carl Zimmer calls outs Blogging Heads and, to a lesser extent, The Huffington Post, for trafficking in anti-science “quackery.” Zimmer is arguably the best ambassador for science journalism, and I admire the stand he has taken (in ending his participation in Blogging Heads). But the larger implications of his argument leaves me uneasy. He basically…Continue Reading…
Can a novel about Navajo culture speak to 21st century sustainability issues? Perhaps. But almost every Southwestern archaeologist would raise an eyebrow after reading this set-up: In Girl With Skirt of Stars, Jennifer Kitchell draws a sharp contrast between modern society and a culture that has occupied the southwest of North America for thousands of…Continue Reading…
Environmentalists are upset that wolves can now be legally hunted in Idaho and Montana. Michael Hutchins provides some necessary context to this emotional issue: There is no doubt that some individuals and organizations will have a difficult time shifting from a mindset where wolves are rare creatures that need every protection to one where wolves are…Continue Reading…
Joe Romm never misses a disaster to beat the global warming drum. You name it– floods, fires, hurricanes–if they’re in the headlines, then he finds a way to connect them to climate change. It’s tricky stuff because he’s smart enough to know that no single climatic event or catastrophe can be pinned exclusively on greenhouse…Continue Reading…
This is a pretty big generalization coming from a wildlife professional: Most Americans know very little about wildlife and nature, and this affects their ability to make intelligent, rational, and well-considered decisions. Also, I don’t think that intelligence + knowledge of nature necessarily = “rational, well-considered decisions.” In Boulder, Colorado, where I just spent a year,…Continue Reading…
This brilliant post by environmental historian Steve Pyne might be the first time that anyone has compared wildfire to Wall Street: Like economic transactions, fire is not a substance but a reaction ““ an exchange. It takes its character from its context. It synthesizes its surroundings. Its power derives from the power to propagate. To…Continue Reading…