Climate Science
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What we have and haven’t learned from ‘Climategate’
I wrote about the “Climategate” controversy (over emails stolen from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit) once, which is about what it warranted. My silent protest had no effect whatsoever, of course, and the story followed a depressingly familiar trajectory: hyped relentlessly by right-wing media, bullied into the mainstream press as he-said she-said, […]
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Why space travel should remain a spectator sport
Space shuttle Discovery at its final launch, looking awesome and polluting like crazyPhoto: NASA Yesterday’s final launch of the space shuttle Discovery provided some amazing images, and probably made a few of us look wistfully at the sky and think of space panoramas (or in my case space poop and space laundry, because I just […]
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The Climate Post: Tension over Middle East oil
Will Gaddafi sabotage Libya’s oil pipelines to spite protesters?Photo: Crethi PlethiOver the past week, the unrest in the Middle East deepened, with growing protests in Bahrain and Libya, and more draconian measures by the countries’ leaders to quash the opposition. Libya is a significant oil exporter, and the first member of the Organization of the […]
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Maybe no one cares about climate change because we’re wired for extinction
Will we follow the Irish elk’s strange evolutionary path toward extinction?This piece was written by George Black. In my unending (and thus far, I have to confess, largely fruitless) attempts to figure out why Americans aren’t more alarmed about climate change, one of the more intriguing ideas I’ve heard recently was put to me by […]
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Linking ‘big weather’ to global warming
Most people are understandably confused about the relationship between global warming and natural variability in the weather. After the huge snowfalls in the northeastern United States over the past few months, for instance, many people can’t help but wonder: With a winter of such magnitude, how can scientists say the planet is warming? Day-to-day and […]
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Climate activist Tim DeChristopher goes to trial
An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. — Martin Luther King, Jr. Dearest readers, I want to share a story […]
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The Chamber of Commerce is darkening our skies
It’s always darkest before it goes pitch black.Photo: Twig is the FutureThis essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. In Beijing, they celebrate when they have a “blue sky day,” when, that is, the haze clears long enough so that you can actually see the sun. Many days, […]
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The energy [r]evolution has begun
Access to energy is vital for our economies, but energy is one of the main sources of the greenhouse gas emissions putting our climate at risk. It follows that we need to transition to a low-carbon, renewable energy mix. That aspiration is frequently debated — at times encouraged, often mocked — but it bears emphasizing: […]
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Futurist Ray Kurzweil isn’t worried about climate change
Ray Kurzweil.Photo: JD LasicaBy Lauren Feeney Author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil famously and accurately predicted that a computer would beat a man at chess by 1998, that technologies that help spread information would accelerate the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that a worldwide communications network would emerge in the mid 1990s (i.e. the […]
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The American people really, really support clean energy
This is from a USA Today/Gallup poll from last month: The same month, House Speaker John Boehner said to the new Congress, “The people voted to end business as usual and today we begin to carry out their instructions.” I’ll be looking for those solar incentives then.
