Environment
grrlscientist | February 19, 2007
Winter Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.
Image source: Lincoln Karim, Pale Male.
Birds in Science
Scientists have successfully tested their ability to identify and DNA "barcode" entire assemblages of species -- the prelude to a genetic portrait of all animal life on Earth (original article). They report having assembled a genetic portrait of birdlife in the U.S. and Canada, and announce the startling discovery of 15 new genetically distinct species, nearly indistinguishable to human eyes and ears and consequently overlooked in centuries of bird studies. The bird researchers obtained DNA from…
tlambert | February 18, 2007Queensland's Land and Resources Tribunal has rejected objections to a new coal mine by environmental groups who wanted offsets for the carbon emissions of the mine. Unfortunately, the Tribunal got the science badly wrong, understating the emissions by a factor of 15, making inappropriate comparisons for the emissions, and dismissing the scientific consensus on global warming based on their own erroneous understanding of the science.
The Presiding Member, Greg Koppenol writes:
Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe AO gave evidence that the proposed mine would contribute to the cumulative impacts of…
petnoyer | February 15, 2007"Does the brainpower of the folks who read DSN have what it takes to save the planet and win a cool 25 M at the same time?", asks author and "Best of DSN" judge Clark Thompson. "I figure if anyone can get this [carbon sequestration challenge] to work it's the kind of folks who read DSN. So, get the word out --and if you get the 25M, count me in for a small finders fee ;-}"
The game is afoot to win the new CO2 busting "Earth Challenge" from Virgin (and X-Prize) Founder Richard Branson and former VP Al Gore. Clark Thompson's fertile mind already contrived a workable theory using fertilized…
clock | February 12, 2007 This post is a modification from two papers written for two different classes in History of Science, back in 1995 and 1998. It is a part of a four-post series on Darwin and clocks. I first posted it here on December 02, 2004 and then again here on January 06, 2005:
II. Darwin on Time
There is a season for everything
And a time for every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die:
A time to plant and a time to reap.... (Ecclesiastes)
In this section I will attempt to evaluate from Darwin's writings what he thought about the selective role of environmental periodicities…
clock | February 12, 2007OK, this is really ancient. It started as my written prelims (various answers to various questions by different committeee members) back in November 1999, and even included some graphs I drew. Then I put some of that stuff together (mix and match, copy and paste) and posted (sans graphs) as a four-part post here, here, here and here on December 2004. Then I re-posted it in January 2005 (here, here, here and here). Finally, I reposted two of the four parts here on this blog (Part 2 and Part 3) in July 2006.
This all means that all this is quite out of date. The world has moved on, more…
jlynch | February 11, 2007Chis Allen is a weatherman for WKBO in Kentucky. He is also an idiot. Witness:
My biggest argument against putting the primary blame on humans for climate change is that it completely takes God out of the picture. It must have slipped these people's minds that God created the heavens and the earth and has control over what's going on. (Dear Lord Jesus...did I just open a new pandora's box?) Yeah, I said it. Do you honestly believe God would allow humans to destroy the earth He created? Of course, if you don't believe in God and creationism then I can see why you would easily buy into the…
clock | February 10, 2007There are several journals dedicated to biological rhythms or sleep. Of those I regularly check only two or three of the best, so I often miss interesting papers that occur in lower-tier journals. Here is one from December 2006 that caught my eye the other day:
Mammalian activity - rest rhythms in Arctic continuous daylight:
Activity - rest (circadian) rhythms were studied in two species of Arctic mammals living in Arctic continuous daylight with all human-induced regular environmental cues (zeitgebers) removed. The two Arctic species (porcupine and ground squirrel) lived outdoors in large…
jrosenhouse | February 9, 2007American Society for Microbiology has now issued this statement in support of evolution and against intelligent design:
Knowledge of the microbial world is essential to understanding the evolution of life on Earth. The characteristics of microorganisms--small size, rapid reproduction, mobility, and facility in exchanging genetic information--allow them to adapt rapidly to environmental influences. In microbiology, the validity of evolutionary principles is supported by [1] readily demonstrated mutation, recombination and selection, which are the fundamental mechanisms of evolution; [2]…
hrynyshyn | February 9, 2007First, you've got to hand it Richard Branson. Say what you want about his contradictory ways -- promoting wasteful extravagance while saving the planet from the products of those wasteful ways -- but his choice of brand name was brilliant. And it gives newspaper editors and bloggers an irresistible headline for anything he does. This time, it's a generous, $25-million prize for anyone who can come up with a way to scrub the atmosphere of all that nasty carbon dioxide we (including his transportation businesses) are pumping out.
Overseeing the innovations are James Hansen, the noted climate…
nisbetmc | February 9, 2007Declaring that framing should be a central strategy, Ellen Goodman in today's syndicated Boston Globe column issues a call to arms on climate change: "Can we change from debating global warming to preparing? Can we define the issue in ways that turn denial into action? In America what matters now isn't environmental science, but political science." Her piece is one of the best summaries I've seen on just how central public communication is to this issue.
In mentioning some of my work in the area, Goodman hits on many of the themes I've featured here at Framing Science or that I have…
cmcclain | February 8, 2007[For the 5th installment of Just Science, I asked Brian Romans a PhD candidate in the Department of Geological & Environmental Sciences at Stanford University to post on his research. You can catch his blog at http://bromans.blogspot.com/]
As we all know, the deep sea contains fantastic records of ancient oceanic conditions. The deep sea also holds clues about the continents. In this case, we can use deep sea sediments to better understand how Earth surface systems respond to climatic fluctuations. The inherent relief between continental and ocean plates drives the transfer of sediment…
integrityofscience | February 8, 2007Political distortions of the scientific process have undergone a dramatic rise in Washington over the past six years, according to the Senate testimony of Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute. Gleick's testimony (download - PDF) was provided to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Climate Change Research and Science Integrity Wednesday. Misuse of science and attacks on scientists, Gleick finds, have been pervasive and categorical.
Good, independent science - indeed good information in general - is crucial to making good political decisions…
clock | February 8, 2007A cornucopia of interesting science today. As always, check if the press release matches the actual paper...
Adaptation To Global Climate Change Is An Essential Response To A Warming Planet:
Temperatures are rising on Earth, which is heating up the debate over global warming and the future of our planet, but what may be needed most to combat global warming is a greater focus on adapting to our changing planet, says a team of science policy experts writing in this week's Nature magazine. While many consider it taboo, adaptation to global climate change needs to be recognized as just as…
cmooney | February 8, 2007There was an absolutely incredible letter from the White House yesterday concerning Bush's record on climate change. It is signed by Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Marburger and Council on Environmental Quality chair James Connaugton, both of whom, with this letter, are guilty of deceiving the public.
The letter says: "Beginning in June 2001, President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem." False. I need only point out, yet again, that just last year, Bush claimed there was a debate over whether…
sb admin | February 7, 2007By Joel TicknerÂ
The European Union (EU) recently issued new regulations requiring chemical firms to develop health and environmental data on chemicals used to make everyday products and provide reasonable assurances of safety. What a novel concept. The sad truth is that it is.  Despite the fact that most public surveys find that people believe (and expect) industrial chemicals are regulated like drugs (governments would never allow companies to place a dangerous, untested chemical into their products, would they?), most government toxics policies, do not follow this expectation. Until…
purepedantry | February 2, 2007The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is out today, and I was shocked to discover that it is already being misreported. It was being mis-reported before, but that was just leaks. You can lie with leaks. They are easily selective.
Now the mis-reportage is being done with the actually report out, so I have a piece of advice for everyone. Just read the thing. It isn't that complicated. Read it for yourself because every time I read a news article about it I notice some new crock of hooey.
Take this for instance:
The panel predicted temperature rises of 2-11.5 degrees…
integrityofscience | January 29, 2007The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be releasing the first of four reports on Friday, including a 12-page summary of policy recommendations. In its first report since 2001, it finds that the planetary warming observed since 1950 is 90% likely to be due from human activities.
Predictably, climate science deniers are already throwing stones. More surprising is the story that some scientists are predicting the report will be too optimistic. From the Associated Press:
Early and changeable drafts of their upcoming authoritative report on climate change foresee smaller sea…
worldsfair | January 29, 2007So I went to a site today called Cool Drive Pass, which is a carbon offsetting project spearheaded by some colleagues of mine at UBC and their friends in Vancouver. Essentially, it's a calculator designed to figure out carbon dioxide emissions of your car, and then to equate an "offsetting fee," where the funds would essentially go to some renewable energy project.
Anyway, carbon offsetting is a bit of contentious issue, since it's viewed by many a stalwart environmentalist as a step, even a step in the right direction, but more likely a step that condones complacency. In other words, some…
j7uy5 | January 25, 2007Remember
rel="tag">geothermal energy? It was a
popular topic back in the 1960's, particularly among those who were
stridently opposed to the massive investments in nuclear power.
Somehow, though, it was never pursued very aggressively.
Now, there is a massive report published by
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology"
rel="tag">MIT, at the behest of the US Dept. of
Energy. It is a big report, a 14MB PDF download:
href="http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf">The
Future of Geothermal Energy. It is mentioned…
worldsfair | January 24, 2007Chris Van Allsburg, "Just a Dream" (over consumption)
So as the truth experiment continues to do its thing, I'm getting ready to give two talks on sustainability and climate science concepts to an audience of visual arts students here at UBC. Specifically, these university students are exploring the techniques and expressive values of drawing and printmaking, so I thought I would colour these talks with a few examples of the art that I'm probably most familiar with - that being kid's books. As well, I'll be working generally with these students on a project, that aims to produce some type…