Climate Science

This exotic animals story just keeps getting more depressing

We noted yesterday that 48 exotic animals had escaped from an Ohio farm, and that authorities were handling the problem by shooting them. That's enough of a downer, but the more details we hear the worse it gets.

There ended up being more than 50 animals running amok, and 49 of them were killed, including 18 endangered Bengal tigers and 17 lions. Local police say they did try to sedate the animals instead of killing them, but they didn't really have tranquilizers suited to 300-pound wildcats. And, as if that's not enough, the reason they were loose in the first place is that owner Terry Thompson released them before committing suicide. Maybe because he heard a story about 18 Bengal tigers getting shot to death.

Climate change didn’t ‘go,’ it was pushed

"Where did global warming go?" It's not "America" that has lost its belief in climate change and its will to take action. It's the Republican Party.

Heat from cities barely affects global warming

One of the many arguments that deniers rely on to pooh-pooh climate change is the prevalence of the “urban heat island” effect, i.e. the tendency for cities to absorb and retain heat. The problem’s not gas-belching cars and factories, it’s all those city-dwelling lefties! But according to a new study from Stanford University, there's just no possible way that cities are causing global warming, at least not on the same scale that greenhouse-gas emissions are.

At most 4 percent of "gross global warming since the Industrial Revolution" can be traced back to urban heat island, the study found. Greenhouse gases are responsible for 79 percent. So, if you live in a city, don't sweat it! If you've commuted for 1.5 hours in a car for the past two decades, maybe sweat it.

The study also contained some bad news about white roofs.

Australians to kill camels for carbon credits

Australians really don't like the hundreds of thousands of feral camels that run around the continent, so every once in a while the government decides to spend money on sending guys with guns up in helicopters to cull their numbers. But now they have a utilitarian justification for the culls: They're fighting climate change.

Like cows, camels spew methane from their digestives systems. By cutting their lives short, one company argues, Australia would be preventing the release of the methane the camels would emit over their remaining years. The company, Northwest Carbon, also says it'll be able to offer carbon credits for the reduction in emissions.

Shark massacre reported off of Colombian coast

Off the coast of Colombia, as many as 2,000 sharks in a wildlife sanctuary have been massacred, says the Colombian government. A team of divers first alerted the government to the killings, according to the Guardian:

[The divers] saw a large number of fishing trawlers entering the zone illegally," [environmental minister Sandra] Bessudo said. The divers counted a total of 10 fishing boats, which all were flying the Costa Rican flag. 

Critical List: Exotic animals escape in Ohio; Nebraskans ‘stand with Randy’

Forty-eight escapees from an exotic animal farm were running amok in eastern Ohio; about 25 of the lions, tigers, and bears have been shot.

If the U.S. wants to oversee Cuba's offshore drilling, it'll have to lift the embargo.

Glad is selling an eco-friendly trash bag, made with less plastic.

How to translate climate science into Average Joe-ese

Communicating science can be a challenge — not everybody wants to be communicated to, for one thing, and also a lot of words with specialized Science Meanings also have regular meanings that are completely different. (If you don't believe me, try using the phrase "quantum leap" to a particle physicist.) In the wake of the […]

You know you want to knit a sweater for a penguin

Now is the time for all good knitters to come to the aid of some penguins. The New Zealand oil spill has left the little guys in need of some warmth and protection, and a Kiwi yarn store has posted patterns for how to knit "penguin jumpers" and instructions on where to send them. 

NYT asks where climate change went, ignores own failed coverage

The New York Times asks why climate change is fading from the U.S. agenda, without addressing the paper's own complicity in collapsing coverage.

Climate change is making plants and insects shrink

Here's a novel weight loss tip: Live on a planet whose global warming trend is so severe that you need to shrink in order to adapt. Oh, and it helps to be an insect, spider, plant, or marine creature. (Or a sheep. Evidently we already knew sheep were shrinking.) If you can manage that, you could be on your way to losing up to 22 percent of your body size, just from climate change!