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Cool books for hot sunny days

Well, folks, it's officially summer. I know this because it's finally -- gasp! -- sunny here in Seattle. So get out those flip-flops and the sunscreen, settle into that lawnchair or hammock, and hand me a margarita ... it's time for the summer reading list.

Popular Science solves the whole energy thing

Everyone and their cousin has already linked to this, but in case you missed it, Popular Science is running a series of stories called The Future of Energy. It's good.

And when I say "good," I mean "more or less reflects my own priorities." I was particularly pleased that nuclear didn't show up on the list and that grid improvements were way up at No. 2. I would have moved "negawatts" -- i.e., efficiency and conservation -- up higher on the list, and moved hydrogen lower, but those are quibbles. Overall, nice work.

(The editors explain their methodology here.)

Waste gas to clean gas

This looks pretty nifty: A company called Prometheus Energy Co. will be setting up a facility that takes waste gas from landfills (ew) and refines it into liquid natural gas, which can fuel vehicles (at least vehicles that have undergone a fairly expensive conversion). Allegedly the resultant gas will be cheaper than diesel, and Prometheus will also set up a fueling station.

The LNG can also be created from "excess gases at coal mines, dairy farms or abandoned natural gas wells."

These waste-to-fuel projects are the kind of no-downside strategy I hope we see a lot more of.

Happy Happy Day!

Are you happy yet?

A psychologist says he can prove that Friday 23 June, today, will be the happiest day of the year.

Hey, Poacher, Leave Those Squids Alone

Pirates cause a social and environmental ruckus in Africa There’s lots of money involved in commercial fishing off African coastlines — a full trawler can bring in over $400,000. The high stakes, poor regulation, and lack of coast guards lure “pirates,” foreign anglers who bully locals and deplete area fish stocks illegally. Many unlicensed vessels […]

C’est Bonn

Legendary music fest Bonnaroo urges fans to go green What do you get when 80,000 blissed-out music fans spend four days in the Tennessee sun? Besides sunburns in inconvenient places, that is. You get trash: 600 tons of it. And you get a captive crowd, which makes it a fine time to offer words of […]

Your coaly future

The graph under the fold is taken from the Energy Information Administration's International Energy Outlook 2006. Read it and weep.

New study on global warming and hurricanes

The report from the National Academy of Sciences was not the only climate study released today. A pair of scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research released a study -- to be published in the coming issue of Geophysical Research Letters -- that purports to show that the majority of the warming of ocean waters that led to the horrendous hurricane season of 2005 is attributable to global warming.

Sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic in 2005 were an average of 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1900-1970 average:

NAS hockey stick report

So the big climate news today is the release of a report by the National Academy of Sciences (coverage from: AP; NYT; WaPo; MSNBC; NPR; Boston Globe). It's being spun every which way, but at its root it's (yet another) confirmation of basic global warming science.

You've probably heard of the climate "hockey stick." It's a graph from a study led by Penn State's Michael Mann that shows global average temperatures sharply spiking in recent years. A couple of guys named Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick -- a statistician and an economist, respectively -- took issue with the study and claimed that Mann had cherry-picked his data and his statistical tools to produce the result he wanted.

In recent years, the hockey stick has become a cause célèbre among right-wing global warming denialists. It is mentioned with mind-numbing regularity by every crank given the keys to an op-ed page, and has become something of a white whale-style obsession for the Mayor of Cranktown, Sen. James Inhofe.

Nature needs people

I found this report by CNN more than a little disturbing. A new study by the Nature Conservancy found that Americans are visiting national parks less often. Researchers believe that 98 percent of the decline can be attributed to an increase in electronic entertainment: TV, video games, movie rentals, and the internet.

People need nature -- national parks specifically. But national parks need people too. Without visitors and a strong constituency, our natural heritage is likely to be eroded by funding cuts, back-door administrative changes, and commercialization. (If you don't think the crown jewels of U.S. natural places are in jeopardy, click on the links above. I dare you.)

The high water mark was 1987, when Americans averaged 1.2 visits to national parks a year. Nowadays, that figure is 0.9 -- less than one visit per person per year. I realize I'm a bit of an outdoor nut (and lucky enough to live in the national park treasure trove of the Pacific Northwest), but ... yikes, that's roughly my monthly average.

However mediated by electronic phenomena modern life becomes, I can't imagine replacing the rawness of a direct encounter with nature. That's why next week, you may find me here, but you won't find me here.