Latest Articles

Skepticism

This great post on Sprol brings some much-needed skepticism to many of the energy alternatives currently being touted as green -- ethanol and "clean coal" among them.

Beez!

Did you know that a swarm of bees is also known as a grist of bees?

I leave it to readers to tease out the metaphorical implications.

Good Luck, Little Buddy

First captive-bred giant panda released into the wild Good news for panda lovers (so, basically everybody): On Friday, the first of 103 giant pandas being bred at a Chinese research center was released into the wild. And panda-monium ensued! OK, not really. Four-year-old Xiang Xiang, whose name means “auspicious,” wandered without event from his cage […]

Rhymes With Blagojevich

Mercury emissions from power plants on the rise in the U.S. Mercury emissions in the U.S. fell by nearly 2 percent between 2003 and 2004, according to newly released federal data, but that small bit of good news masks a troubling trend. Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants were actually up 4 percent over the […]

The Threat Set

Polar bear and hippo added to list of at-risk species Animals and plants considered threatened with extinction now number 16,119, including 20 percent of assessed shark and ray species, the polar bear, and the common (no-longer-happy) hippopotamus. So says the latest Red List of Threatened Species, produced after two years of study by the World […]

Sue and Improved

States to sue Bush admin over weak fuel-economy standards for SUVs Stop us if this sounds familiar: A group of states plans to sue the feds over lax environmental regulations. At this point, the feds have more suits than Armani! Their federalism federalisn’t! Take my states … please! (Hey, we have to liven these stories […]

Adaptation strategies: The good, the bad, and the ugly

A while ago there was a great discussion of the pros and cons of integrating adaptation into global-warming debates (prompted by Nordhaus and Shellenberger's op-ed "preparing for nature's attack").

I just ran across an adaptation strategy that's compelling because it positively engages global warming consequences, without softpeddling or sidestepping the issue. Alex Wilson at Environmental Building News suggests that in order to adapt to increasing environmental volatility, we need to design buildings for passive survivability.

Ooh, I like the sound of that ...

My year of teaching environmental science without a textbook

In the first class of the 2005-2006 school year, after calling roll and introducing myself and co-professor Terry Bensel, I told our students they were participating in an experiment. An experiment that, as far as we knew, no one else had undertaken. They were taking an Introduction to Environmental Science course with no textbook. Saved […]

Where’s Biodee?

My daughter found and I photographed these creatures yesterday. Can you tell where I am by identifying them? From left to right: Roach (the size of my thumb), day gecko, anole. I wish you luck, because none of them are endemic to this area. Maybe that's the hint you need. More photos in my next post.

The next time someone asks you why we should save our biodiversity, tell them this: "Doing so will prolong and improve the lives of billions of people ... including your own sorry ass." This article found in People and Planet summarizes a report just released by the WWF describing compounds recently discovered in the jungles of Borneo with the potential to treat AIDS, TB, cancer, and malaria.

America’s place in the world

George W. Bush has presided over the diminution of America's prestige and influence in ways almost too numerous to count: flouting the Geneva Conventions, permitting torture, launching unprovoked wars, claiming unprecedented executive power, bungling relationships with the UN and virtually every other country on the planet, eroding civil liberties, increasing government secrecy, the list goes on and on.

But in the long haul, I think his most grievous blow to this country is the one that is least discussed and understood: his utter failure to prepare the U.S. for the 21st century energy situation. This is treated with typical casual silliness in the press and has provoked little outrage in a public that sees American global hegemony as a fixed fact of life.

But it isn't fixed. It isn't immutable. Matter of fact, it's tottering: