A panel at this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting was summarized afterwards in a AAAS press release: Cable news junkies, take heart: if you love wall-to-wall coverage of hurricanes, wildfires and superstorms, your future viewing schedules will be jam-packed. Researchers at the AAAS Annual Meeting said that wild weather events…Continue Reading…
If you know anyone who swears by acupuncture, homeopathy, or any other unproven treatments that fall under the alternative medicine rubric, then you know there is no dissuading them with a science-based argument. What matters most to alternative health devotees is their own personal experiences and the people they trust–like Dr. Oz, Oprah, Prince Charles,…Continue Reading…
As anyone who follows environmental discourse knows, sustainability is more than a popular buzzword. It’s a concept that frames all discussion on climate change, development, and ecological concerns. For example, today’s line-up of sessions at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting includes a panel called, “Getting to Global Ecological Sustainability: Climate…Continue Reading…
Well, nothing like an unexpected meteor shower to spice up the day. By now, many have seen the incredible pictures and video from Russia. (Phil Plait at Slate has many good links.) As CNN reminds us, this comes on the same day that a hefty asteroid is due to charge past the Earth at a pretty close range, in…Continue Reading…
Every movement has a discourse that is shaped by people who are passionate, committed, and forceful. Some feel so certain in their rightness that they try to control the discourse and purge those deemed insufficiently true to the movement’s cause. A political example of this would be today’s U.S. Republican Party, which, as David Frum…Continue Reading…
Bill Gates is the world’s most generous humanitarian. He is also very ambitious and self-assured. Last month in the Wall Street Journal, Gates outlined his plan to “fix the world’s greatest problems,” as the headline of his piece stated. (It is reproduced from his annual letter.) This includes reducing child mortality and improving educational performance by better…Continue Reading…
If there is one tenet for conservation biologists and environmentalists to live by in the age of the Anthropocene, it would be this pearl of wisdom from the ecologist Daniel Botkin: Nature in the twenty-first century will be a nature that we make; the question is the degree to which this molding will be intentional or…Continue Reading…
In his State of the Union Address last night, President Obama spoke forcefully about global warming. He said that, “for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.” Notably, the President framed his case this way: Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But…Continue Reading…
Bill Moyers has asked an array of luminaries to play speechwriter for tonight’s State of the Union Address. Everybody has their own pet cause or issue, of course. So here’s what Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva wishes President Obama might say (my emphasis): For the sake of the Earth, our family farms and our children’s health, we must…Continue Reading…
What happens when the ideological agenda of crunchy granola food activists intersects with the religious agenda of anti-abortion activists? You get this (recycled, bizarro) nonsense from a Seattle-based organic food advocacy website: Biotech companies have been using aborted human fetal cells for testing the effectiveness of different flavoring agent in their products. Last year the news came out…Continue Reading…