Articles by David Roberts

EarthEngine.net

A word of counsel to the new and potential-laden earthengine.net: Just because you can do something in Flash doesn't mean you should.

Internet shopping and the environment

Ever wondered about the impact of internet shopping on the environment? Me neither, but thankfully the folks over at Gotham Gazette are all over it. On the plus side, there are fewer vehicle-miles logged shopping. On the negative side, there's lots and lots and lots of recycling: Cardboard boxes, styrofoam, packaging, etc.

I like this idea:

Already the Kennedy wind controversy is a target of fatuous bloviating

Sigh. The whole flap over Bobby Kennedy and the Cape Cod wind farm is first and foremost a distraction. In anything you've read about it, have you seen any statistics? How many wind farms are being actively fought by locals? How many of those on environmental grounds? Has Kennedy taken stands on other wind farms? What does the environmental impact statement on the wind farm say?

You're unlikely to get any actual information from stories about the hubbub. Instead, expect a bunch of fatuous trend pieces (environmentalists divided!) and fatuous hypocrisy charges (environmentalists won't take their own medicine!). Expect fatuity. The whole damn thing is a big Fatuity Generator.

Exhibit A: Conservative NYT columnist John Tierney addressed the controversy yesterday (yes, I know, you can't read it). Here's an excerpt:

Gaia theorist says we’re all doomed

So, James Lovelock -- he of the famous "Gaia Hypothesis" -- has a rather, uh, grim piece in the Independent today, mainly as advance hype for his new book The Revenge of Gaia.

(The paper also has a follow-up piece that does little but point out the existence of the original piece. Oh, and another follow-up piece, doing the same. And, um, another follow-up piece, in case you missed the first three.)

I'm not really clear on what Lovelock thinks he's trying to accomplish. Does he think people aren't more concerned about global warming because environmentalists haven't yelled loud enough? Haven't been apocalyptic enough? Haven't painted a vivid enough picture of the end of civilization? Does he think becoming even more melodramatic -- "before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic" -- is going to snap people awake?

I'm mystified by this attitude, which seems to be widely shared. Just shouting, louder and louder and louder, isn't going to do anything. Lovelock's latest piece is not going to reach anybody who's not already sympathetic. Public opinion polls show that the majority of people believe in global warming and believe it's human-caused and believe it's a threat. What are they supposed to do? Panic? They need to see pathways, from where we're standing now to a place where it will be OK. Lovelock offers no such pathways.

This kind of street-corner "the end is nigh" stuff has, in my humble opinion, largely exhausted its usefulness.

Here are some of the high low points: