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…
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…
I’m confused by this post on Iraq’s environmental crisis over at The Duck of Minerva. First, to attribute Iraq’s devastated environment to war, as Roger A. Payne seemingly does, is an oversimplification. Even the LA Times article that he plays off of recognizes that. Then, after tallying up the devastation, Payne concludes: In IR [International…Continue Reading…
As I wrote in this story a few years back, most ancient ruins are discovered after a bulldozer digs up the ground for a new highway, oil pipeline, or strip mall. It’s called “rescue” or “salvage” archaeology.” It’s an ironic way to advance a science–got to build new stuff before you can find the really…Continue Reading…
This story by Elisabeth Rosenthal in Saturday’s New York Times unintentionally highlights an issue that receives scant attention in the media. Which is the bigger, more immediate problem: land use (such as deforestation) or climate change? If you want to make things even more complicated, throw in natural climatic events, such as drought. Rosenthal tries…Continue Reading…
As I wrote here several weeks ago, global warming is already changing South Florida’s ecology. The difficulty facing land managers and field biologists is determining the extent of the change and what actions to take. After talking with a number of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service staffers based in the southeast, I had the impression…Continue Reading…
I love to hash over climate policy and politics as much as the next peon blogger. And I love biting the ankles of melodramatic bloviators. But I also love reporting, which often means reading documents and talking with people on the phone. So this week I’ve tried to tamp down my enthusiasm for bloggy smackdowns…Continue Reading…