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Hunters and anglers rally for climate bill

A recent poll by the National Wildlife Federation, which counts more than 420,000 members across 42 states, found that 66 percent of hunters and anglers surveyed believed that global warming was already occurring. A Gallup poll in March 2009 found that only 53 percent of the general population shared the same view. People who spend […]

GOP proposes to cut solar technology funding

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) is continuing his effort to limit the scope and spending of a solar technology bill headed to the House floor today with an amendment that would limit the length of the program and cut its funding levels. Broun has proposed a new amendment to H.R. 3585 that would provide $750 million […]

18 leading scientific organizations send letter to Senators

Here is the letter from 18 top U.S. scientific organizations: Dear Senator: As you consider climate change legislation, we, as leaders of scientific organizations, write to state the consensus scientific view. Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that the greenhouse gases emitted by human […]

Bicycles, Trauma Centers, and Injury Severity Scores

Two recent articles have motivated me to do another biking post. First up is this one, from Science Daily Despite the wide-spread attention paid to the importance of wearing helmets, helmet use did not change during the time period of the study, and more than 33 percent of 329 bicycle injury victims had a significant […]

What does the Pew poll mean?

The big news yesterday was a Pew poll showing a precipitous decline in the number of people who believe there is strong scientific evidence for anthropocentric climate change. Jon covered the details pretty well, including some reasons it should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s peculiar that these polls are often taken as […]

Poll finds sharp rise in global warming skepticism

There are good reasons not to get too worked up about public-opinion polling on issues like climate change and energy. Polls confirm, over and over, that the public opinion is malleable—so much rides on the wording of questions. And most people don’t analyze policy in their spare time, so why ask them about cap and […]

Put a cap on it, America!

Tim Flannery says the U.S. Senate absolutely must pass some form of carbon cap before the Copenhagen talks in December.Mark Coulson, 5th World Conference of Science JournalistsDon’t let the perfect be the enemy of the absolutely essential. That’s the message author and climate campaigner Tim Flannery brought to Grist’s Seattle office today. By that, he […]

Fixing the bioenergy accounting loophole

A group of prominent ecologists and climate scientists have an important article coming out in tomorrow’s issue of Science, in which they call for “fixing a critical climate accounting error.” The error is ignoring a significant source of global warming pollution related to using biomass for energy (“bioenergy”). I know that most people’s eyes glaze […]

Host a viewing party for the must-see new film “Coal Country”

This week’s post was co-written by Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign “My hope is this superb documentary will shock Americans and create a surge of urgency that stops the atrocity of mountaintop removal coal mining immediately.” — actress Ashley Judd That’s the trailer for the powerful new documentary […]

Methane leakage runs up a $50 billion bill

Methane is a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, so when it’s leaking by the ton, it’s a $50 billion problem. The New York Times described the phenomenon of methane leakage in a recent article which raised questions about the true costs of this waste.  The EPA estimates that 3 trillion cubic […]