You have to read this final report just issued by the Interior Department to appreciate the blatant disregard for the West’s air quality demonstrated by the Bush Administration in its final weeks. First, some background. Late last year, I wrote a piece for High Country News that revealed the blistering critiques EPA’s Rocky Mountain office…Continue Reading…
Are we on the cusp of revolutionizing the scientific method, or merely speeding up the scientific process? Either way, this is a fascinating post by Carl Zimmer on how scientists used a wiki to collaborate in real time on the swine flu virus and then publish their results a little more than a month later…Continue Reading…
Are we finally having a debate on climate adaptation? Sorta. Maybe. Not If politicians, policymakers and climate advocates were really engaging the thorny issue of adaptation, this story by Bruce Stutz, which appeared late last month on Yale Environment 360, would have circled the globe by now. This quote alone from Columbia University’s Wallace Broeker…Continue Reading…
The latest journalist to get sprayed in a typical Romm drive-by pushes back ever so politely. Romm, in his tasteless, arrogant response, shows how smart guys can be so dumb.
Via the Danger Room, we learn that a science division of the Pentagon has been funneling millions of dollars to a research institute at the American Museum of Natural History that studies evolutionary biology and genetic adaptation. In actuality, the money comes courtesy of New York Rep. Charlie Rangel’s earmark requests. Congressional earmarks get a…Continue Reading…
An immediate ban would force me to remember to take my own shopping bag out of the car when I go to the grocery store.
Could this be true?
Grist seems to have a bad case of buyer’s remorse these days. There was plenty of fiery debate on the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the weeks leading up to its passage out of committee. But if you’re a regular reader of Grist you only heard one side of that debate, mainly a vigorous defense/rationalization of…Continue Reading…
What happens when you cross John Nash’s view of human behavior with Isaiah Berlin’s concept of human freedom? You get the reason why we may never chart an environmentally sustainable course. This is the interesting argument that Kurt Cobb lays out over at The Oil Drum. His conclusion is dispiriting: The way to win any…Continue Reading…
Play along with me for a minute. Let’s say this economist from the London School of Economics is right when he asserts: The American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act of 2009 is worse than nothing: it is a con and a fraud. It pretends to be a vehicle for reductions in CO2E emissions. In…Continue Reading…