Between a Rock & a Hard Place
I’d say this qualifies for President Obama.
Monthly Archives : October 2011
The Radical Climate Scientist
The Judith Curry story fascinates me. She has undergone such a major transformation in recent years that some now find her unrecognizable. As long-time readers know, I played a bit role in how some of this story played out. But make no mistake, this is Curry’s story, and she’s still writing it over at Climate Etc, her…Continue Reading…
About that Great Disruption
I haven’t read Paul Gilding’s The Great Disruption yet, but I know that the book’s thesis has been accepted by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who has written about it repeatedly, including a column earlier this week. In recent years, Friedman has come to view the global economic recession, climate change, and social uprisings…Continue Reading…
When Nature Bites Back
That was the headline of a book review I wrote years ago about Boulder, Colorado being stalked by mountain lions. When I briefly lived there in the late 2000s, some of the natives (okay, they were my colleagues) sniggered at my histrionic fears. Now it looks like the wildlife in Boulder is getting even peskier. Check…Continue Reading…
Quote for the Day
Dig into the political history of nuclear power, as I did for “The Fallout,” published in the magazine this week, and one swiftly discovers that the success and failure of this technology hinges to an extraordinary degree on the political culture of the governments behind it. –Evan Osnos in the The New Yorker.
Getting Hooked on Sustainability
Steve Jobs got us attached to our gadgets. Some suggest that a similar bond needs to happen with sustainability. I explore this theme over at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media.
Why Climate Uncertainty is Cause for Concern
At Forbes, William Pentland explores the “fat tail” of climate change and concludes: Uncertainty is intrinsic to complex systems like Earth’s climate, but in the context of catastrophic climate change, this uncertainty is so severe that it is difficult to draw basic conclusions about how fat the fat tail is. According to [Harvard University’s Martin]…Continue Reading…
The Merits of Escapism
Via social media, I’ve just come across this 2007 cartoon by Clay Bennett. As a commentary on the human tendency to avoid unpleasant realities, it works. But the cartoon also seems to misunderstand why we go to the movies. For that, let’s go to the legendary Pauline Kael: Movie audiences will take a lot of…Continue Reading…
Climate Dissent
When Al Gore said last week that scientists now have “clear proof that climate change is directly responsible for the extreme and devastating floods, storms and droughts that displaced millions of people this year,” my heart sank. That would be the heart of Myles Allen, an author of this recent paper. His sentiment is candidly expressed in this Guardian piece published…Continue Reading…
Clubby Climate Blogosphere Gets Clubbier
There’s an intriguing new website/blog devoted to sustainability issues, which one admirer describes as thus: Planet 3.0 is attempt to do something genuinely useful and different in facilitating discussions about sustainability, and I am greatly encouraged to see it launched. Me too! Eager to learn more about this fledgling endeavor, I clicked on the “About”…Continue Reading…