Cleo Paskal, whose book I reviewed last year, has a smart piece on what’s being left out in risk assessments for energy installations: First, due to changing environmental conditions (sea level rise, subsidence, changing storm activity, etc.), historical records may no longer be reliable predictors for future risks. For example, the summer of 2003 was…Continue Reading…
A military analyst/scholar, explaining why he’s recently turned down media requests to appear on TV, echoes Jon Stewart’s infamous diatribe.
If you’re a fan of Time’s Ecocentric blog, as I am, you may have noticed that all 12 of their posts last week focused exclusively on Japan’s nuclear crisis. This from a site whose tagline claims A blog about all things green, from conservation to Capitol Hill The narrow nuclear-centric focus continues into this week,…Continue Reading…
A new study provides an interesting public opinion comparison between Canada and the U.S. Of the 11-page report, Tim Scolnick at Desmogblog says perhaps the most surprising feature is that in Canada, in spite of the fact that the Conservative Party has held power for just over five years, all the while opposing any action to cap…Continue Reading…
A “reformed climate skeptic” has just published an intriguing book, titled Deep Future, which this article calls the long, long view on climate change. I find the book’s purpose fascinating, given that we can’t see our way to thinking several decades ahead, much less thousands of years into the future. Still, I welcome this new dimension to…Continue Reading…
A China analyst advises that dethroning coal from its dominant position in China’s energy hierarchy will be exceptionally difficult, even assuming optimistic scenarios of deploying other energy sources. What does this realistic outlook imply? Therefore, it is imperative to simultaneously focus on developing clean coal and carbon technologies.
John Collins Rudolf provides an ugly, but necessary deconstruction. That it would take more than 20 years for federal regulators to finally propose toxic emissions standards for the power industry is testament to both the slow wheels of bureaucracy and the clout of the nation’s utility and coal interests, which bitterly “” and for years,…Continue Reading…
Given the politicization of climate science in the public sphere, I’m not sure it makes sense to mention climate blogs in the same breath as archaeology blogs. Still, there are familiar challenges (and rewards) to blogging for both climate scientists and archaeologists. So I advise any climate scientists lurking at my blog to read a…Continue Reading…
I found this lament by NYT columnist Timothy Egan tough to swallow, in part because his enbrace of the “frankenfish” label demonizes the complex issue of genetically engineered salmon. Additionally, Egan makes his case by juxtaposing fraught concerns over biotechnology with Japan’s nuclear disaster, which I found problematic. Indeed, one Times reader wondered if it…Continue Reading…
I’m picturing a Navy Seal-turned environmental activist turned loose in a zany Carl Hiaasen plot. I don’t know much of Peter Bethune’s background, but he sure comes off here as one righteous bad ass. Bethune’s new organisation is based on fledgling local chapters of volunteers around the world, plus a six-man mission team. But where…Continue Reading…